Conservatives to target modernisation and improvements
Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling has defended his party’s electrification record, claiming: “Soon we will have electrified not three times, but dozens of times more railway than was electrified in the years between 1997 and 2010.”
Grayling highlighted electrification around Manchester, but stopped short of confirming wires across the Pennines, merely saying that the Government was “looking at electrification as part of passenger improvements across the Pennines”.
He added: “If the trains can run seamlessly in diesel and electric, do we really need to cause disruption and close the Standedge tunnel for weeks to put wires through it, as we did with the Severn Tunnel, if the trains can run through it anyway?”
Grayling also claims that to electrify the entire Midland Main Line (MML) will cost £1 billion more than planned, yet deliver just a one-minute saving on journey times to Sheffield.
He has come under fire from both the opposition and campaign groups in recent weeks, following the decision not to wire from Cardiff to Swansea and from Didcot to Oxford, and to cancel the MML wiring north of Corby and the Windermere wiring scheme.
Speaking in Manchester on September 22, the SoS said: “People have to stop only thinking about how a train is powered, and focus instead on getting the best possible improvement for passengers. What delivers better journey times is primarily the way you upgrade the tracks and the signalling, and how you invest in trains.”
Defending the MML decision, Grayling said Government has an “ambitious modernisation plan in place for between now and 2020”.
He added: “We are putting in place better signalling. We are working on straightening the curves on the route right now, so that trains can run faster. We are buying brand new 125mph bi-mode electric trains for the route. We will electrify those parts of the route where it will make the biggest difference.
“And by doing all of that we will reduce the journey time from London to Sheffield by up to 20 minutes in the peak. It will be the biggest set of improvements to journeys on that route since it opened in 1870.”
He said of Government critics: “I have been baffled by the accusations coming from some of our opponents. They have been telling us we are doing nothing. And yet some of those same opponents are sitting at the table with us, in Transport for the North, planning the detail of this modernisation programme. They co-designed the transformation of Northern and TransPennine. “They are also sitting beside us planning the detail of Northern Powerhouse Rail - a commitment to the North that was in our manifesto.
“I am waiting for TfN to tell us where they believe the priorities for that project lie, so we can begin to plan in detail. That’s why I’m surprised to hear some accuse us of doing nothing, while they are a part of the work to deliver transformational and exciting improvements to the North.”