We should already be wired
I agree with John Gilbert (Carry on wiring, Open Access, RAIL 824), with one exception: the Public Accounts Committee doesn’t have a clue what it is supposed to be overseeing, so sympathy is not what I would give them.
The powers-that-be involved with the Great Western electrification scheme seem to be taking the PAC for a very long ride at our expense.
It proves one thing, though - the further up the ladder one goes, the further away from reality one goes! The hierarchy at Network Rail have proved that with flying colours, with the Great Western scheme. They give the impression that they are not sure what to do next, hence the escalation in costs.
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the modernisation plan of 1955 was the biggest ‘cock-up’ that the railways ever incurred. Far too many diesel prototypes were built, and many didn’t last more than ten years - the Claytons (Class 17) are a prime example. Some of the early classes of electric locomotives didn’t last very long, either. There were too many builders involved. There should have been an all-out programme of main line electrification throughout the country, be it on AC or DC power. Even if the programme had taken almost twice as long to complete, we would now be travelling on a clean, efficient network with diesel fumes kept to an absolute minimum.
Of all the main lines not yet electrified, the West Coast Main Line would have been first as one of the busiest, followed by the East Coast Main Line, then all the cross-country links between them, then the Midland Main Line, and so on until most (if not all) of the main lines were electrified, by which time dual-voltage trains would have become the norm.
The major suburban networks, including infill schemes (Walsall to Lichfield and Nuneaton to Coventry, to name two), should then have followed, if not included as part of the national scheme. The former is in the process of being done now, 50 years later.
Coming back to the WCML electrification, it was several years before it was extended from Weaver Junction to Motherwell to link in with the Scottish scheme. However, ten years later I saw on the front cover of a 1984 issue of
Railnews, British Rail’s in-house newspaper that ‘‘BR wins £300
million road aggregates contract’. This was for the construction of the A55 dual carriageway road.
BR said it could have electrified from Crewe to Holyhead “three times over and still have change” out of that amount of money, which could have changed the whole concept of transport in North Wales.
It makes no difference which political party is in power. Public transport expenditure on infrastructure is not considered important enough to keep pace with change in society, especially outside the M25 motorway! Chris Pearson, Stockport