Network Rail to restart paused electrification projects

Work on the TransPennine Express Railway – between Manchester and York – and Midland Mainline – from London to Sheffield – was paused in June.

The Manchester to York section of the work is now planned to be completed by 2022.

According to the DfT announcement, the new plan will bring faster journey times and more capacity between Manchester, Leeds and York.

The TransPennine route including Manchester and Leeds would have been electrified by December 2018, but now will only start in 2018 and finish in 2022, a Department for Transport spokesman told the Mirror.

The announcement has come after Sir Peter Hendy’s plan for the projects was approved by Transport Secretary Patrick McCloughlin. Businesses in cities and towns across the Midlands and the North are desperate for improved rail connections and capacity.

‘This government will see the job through and build a better, faster and more reliable railway for passengers in the North and Midlands’. But it’s disappointing that the project will be delivered years late.

Before the General Election a Government-commissioned taskforce was asked to recommend the next routes to undergo electrification which suggested several in Yorkshire, including the Harrogate and Calder Valley lines, should be prioritised.

‘CECA hopes the news that these schemes are to be unpaused will enable them to go forward without further delay as an important step towards rebalancing the economy and improving connectivity’.

Network Rail will also recommence work to electrify Midland Mainline, with Sir Peter proposing that line speed and capacity improvement works already in hand are added to with electrification of the line north of Bedford to Kettering and Corby by 2019 and the line North of Kettering to Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Sheffield by 2023.

McLoughlin said in the DfT statement that the decision to restart the upgrades was testimony to the government’s “one nation” credentials, while Hendy said the pause had permitted the formulation of “a better plan for passengers”.

Ed Cox, director of the IPPR North thinktank, said: “We need to see new cash, real money, spades in the ground on the range of projects put forward by northern leaders which can transform the region’s prospects”.

Hendy has outlined to McLoughlin how work could continue, and the Transport Secretary has confirmed that Network Rail can now “un-pause” the electrification.

Describing the existing schemes as a “big task”, he added: “I know there is pressure in other areas to try and do more work but we will look and that and try and address a few of that”.

Northern Powerhouse Minister and Stockton South MP James Wharton said: “When electrification was paused to be reviewed many claimed it would never happen, but it is happening and it is welcome”.

“It would be good to have much more concrete information as to when that is going to happen”.