POLITICS
Midland Main Line plans have gone off the rails
The region has railed against Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s ‘hit-n-run’ announcement that the Midland Main Line will not be electrified. Later this month, time will be set aside in Westminster for transport questions. East Midlands MPs and businesses are working together to persuade Mr Grayling to change his mind
Given all the work done over the past decade by MPs, businesses and local authorities alike, few announcements in recent history are likely to evoke such a strong and united response as that made by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling on the last day of Parliament before the summer recess. In a heavily top-spun, ‘hit-n-run’ media
release, Mr Grayling (for the Government) declared that rail services through the East Midlands would be significantly improved under the next train operating franchise. That’s not to suggest that there is anything wrong with the services operated by current franchisee East Midlands Trains. Faster journey times between Sheffield and
London were promised thanks to the introduction on the route of bi-mode trains – rolling stock capable of running on both diesel and electric power. Bi-mode trains, Mr Grayling assured us, would
be better than fully electric trains because of the amount of work being done globally on alternative fuels – such as hydrogen – which could make electric railways obsolete in the relatively near future, apparently. What the release tried to hide was that
Government had decided to finally pull the plug on the on-off-on-off saga of electrification of the Midland Main Line – one of the country’s main
north-south rail arteries and one that has suffered years of neglect and underinvestment compared with other routes. Electrification, with all its gantries and cables,
was unsightly, Mr Grayling said. The truth is that Government wants to save the £1bn fully-costed expense of electrifying Midland Main Line. Why? The answer became clear 65 hours later
when Mr Grayling announced £30bn for London’s new Crossrail 2 rail project. Once again, Midland Main Line and the East Midlands had become the sacrificial lamb for short-sighted London-centric investment. Yes, Government is spending some money in
Midland Main Line. Routes and priorities through Derby station are being improved and the Harborough Curve, near Market Harborough, is being straightened. Mr Grayling would have us believe that these changes and bi-mode trains will shave 20 minutes off journey times between Sheffield and London, but he’s being disingenuous. The planned bi-mode trains might be slightly
faster at top speed running on diesel north of Kettering than they will be running under electric power south of Kettering, but that’s only down to the amount of electricity available in the system, not the abilities of the trains. Bi-mode trains are considerably heavier than electric trains. They have two power supplies
‘Midland Main Line and the East Midlands had become the sacrificial lamb for short-sighted London-centric investment’
Chris Grayling, Transport Secretary
and a 200-gallon diesel tank. They accelerate more slowly and take longer to brake than lighter electric trains. They are, therefore, slower overall than electric
trains and will probably be slower than existing diesel stock used on the route. They are also noisier than electric trains, wear tracks out faster because of their added weight and cost more per mile to run. The savings to journey times will come from
service changes including trains running non- stop between Kettering and London, and stopping services between Kettering and London not going any farther north. That means no direct links between Sheffield
and, for example, Luton Airport. At the same time as announcing that for the
foreseeable future Derby, Nottingham and Leicester will be served by diesel-powered trains, Mr Grayling also announced that sales of new diesel- and petrol-powered cars will be banned in the UK after 2040. That announcement included information about
a £255m fund to help towns and cities come up with clean air initiatives – among them, and probably quite soon, the banning of diesel cars and vans from city centres during peak hours and punitive ‘toxin taxes’ – like London’s congestion charge – levied against them during the day. Derby and Nottingham city councils are
already investigating ‘toxin taxes’. Leicester recently declared that plans to meet clean air targets had relied heavily on electrification of the railway through the city. Electrifying Midland Main Line also makes
more sense when considered alongside HS2 and begs the question that if alternative fuels are so close, why will HS2 rolling stock be electric? The East Midlands is the centre of the
country’s rail engineering industry and the Derby-based ‘rail cluster’ is the largest in the world. Cancellation of electrification of the Midlands Main Line means skills lost, apprenticeships lost and supply chains being broken up. In short, the future productive capacity of a strategically important sector is threatened by uncertainty of public sector investment. Chris Hobson, the Chamber’s Director of
The planned bi-mode trains may be slightly faster at top speed 28 business network October 2017
Policy, met last month with a cross-party group of regional MPs in London to devise a battle plan to persuade Mr Grayling to go ahead with the electrification.
Photo Courtesy of Phil Sangwell
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