UK Electrification Plans

This has been mentioned elsewhere, but I think it deserves its own thread.

Last year, the UK government announced plans to electrify these lines:
The Great Western Main Line: London - Reading - Swindon - Cardiff - Swansea
GWML branches to Oxford and Newbury
Manchester - Liverpool

The GWML electrification is to take 8 years and cost GBP 1 billion
The Manchester - Liverpool electrification 4 years and GBP 100 million

WIth the recent election, two possible coalition partners are likely to be at loggerheads about it:
BBC News - Lib Dems plan rail expansion by cutting road projects
WalesOnline - News - Cardiff News - Labour and Tories at odds over rail electrification plan - the Tories are reluctant to spend on it

Projects and infrastructure
Britain's Transport Infrastructure: Rail Electrification (677 kb)
Existing rail electrification: pg. 16 in the PDF
Proposals: pg. 30
The ones mentioned here and some additional ones, like Bedford - Sheffield, and Edinburgh - Glasgow.

i presume the line to Bristol will be included in the welsh line . that one is well overdue .

The plans look good but...

Every commentator thinks we are about to enter a period of savage government spending cuts which would happen whichever party or parties form a government.

The Great Western is long overdue to be electrified. Brunel engineered it so well that it could be almost a High Speed Line. Bristol would be electrified. But what about trains west of Bristol? Would there be a change of locomotives or would electrification continue to Exeter or Plymouth? The Great Western Railway had a plan to electrify the Devon and Cornwall line, mainly because of the expense of transporting coal down there.

And the Severn Tunnel is a problem. It is extremely wet down there with numerous leaks from the river and the need for continuous pumping. Really, from an engineering point of view, it ought to be replaced with a new tunnel or other link. That's not very likely.

It's a pity the Midland line is not on the list. Everyone can imagine other lines that would benefit from electrification.

In Scotland the Scottish Government is building two main electric routes. One is the regular route from Edinburgh to Glasgow, the busiest diesel line in Britain and possibly the world. Trains run at a frequency of 4 per hour. The new line via Bathgate to Glasgow will be electric. They are proposing Glasgow-Stirling to Aberdeen, and possibly Edinburgh to Aberdeen.
Will they have the money for these lines? The Edinburgh Glasgow lines are already being built.

In England the plans are largely the work of Lord Adonis, probably the best Transport Secretary we have had for decades, and one who seems to be an expert on railways. Last year he went on a journey with a rail rover over large parts of the network, something no other transport minister is known to have done.

He is likely to be out of office soon, unless there is a Labour-Liberal coalition. A Tory-led government is likely to make cuts.

Just this week the CEO of Chiltern Railways, which runs a secondary route from London to Birmingham and beyond said he envisaged electrification eventually. This may be the best run trains company. It has recently been bought by Deutschebahn Regio.

Agree with most of above - Adonis has been good, I don't understand why the GWML was not considered prime candidate for HS2 as it is pretty much a straight shot with miles of plain line. It doesn't make much sense to stop the electrification short of Swansea, but maybe if cuts are the order of the day they could stop the service at Cardiff and have Arriva run a district service the rest of the way, but that would basically mean downgrading the last hour of the journey from London.

The main worry is the latest reports coming out about the reduction in carriage lengths of HS1. There are a number of reasons I've heard for this, such as uncomfortable trains and the service running very slow and unreliable after Ashford. I think the two biggest issues are the cost and the fact that most (current) Kent commuters find a slower service into S London much more convenient than disembarking at St Pancras. This might just be a teething problem and one which changes as people plan their moves etc around a new service, but it might be used as a means to scupper HS2 proposals.

We'll see soon enough I suppose.