FORTH BRIDGE TO BE ELECTRIFIED… AND MORE BESIDES
Druimuachdar Pass, the Tay Bridge, the Forth Bridge… what do they have in common?
All will have wires inside the next 15 years – maybe much earlier – under new plans launched by Transport Scotland. So too will the revived section of ‘Waverley Route’ between Edinburgh and Tweedbank.
Is there no end to the despoliation by catenary of some of Britain’s most iconic railway sites (or sights)? Well, it’s unlikely, given the drive to go green.
Scotland’s equivalent of the Department for Transport in the rest of GB is aiming at no less than “the removal of diesel passenger trains from the Scottish network by 2035.”
Expect similar moves elsewhere in these islands too. It’s inevitable.
Currently, Scotland only has wires in places south of Stirling. But there has already been a rolling programme, and with plans to string catenary across around 80 miles (albeit measured as single track) each year, that will spread: to north of Inverness over the Highland Main Line, plus Aberdeen and beyond over the coastal route used by the A1 Trust’s ‘Aberdonians’. It amounts to the biggest physical change to some of this country’s most scenic railways since they were built.
Once the programme is done, there aren’t many places that wires won’t hem in. One is Mallaig (so at least we’re spared the vision of the ‘Jacobite’ running across an electrified Glenfinnan…). In the long term, the West Highland Line, Far North Line beyond Tain to Wick and Thurso, the Kyle Road and Stranraer are the only bits expected to stay wire-free. Some kind of alternative plan (hydrogen?) is expected for these.
Running as it does through little more than glorious wilderness, much of the network north o’ the border has managed to stay wonderfully close to how its original engineers conceived. With its red lines drawn across the maps, July’s action plan puts us on notice of how little that will stay true.
● If you’re interested – maybe if only to see which classic locations will change forever – you can read Transport Scotland’s nearly 50-page report at: www.transport.gov.scot/media/47906/rail-services-decarbonisation-action-plan. pdf (quick link: https://bit.ly/3a8egAn)