10:20pm Wednesday 22nd July 2009
By William Crossley
ELECTRIC trains will be whisking passengers between Oxford, Didcot and London within a few years, the Government announced tonight.
Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said that electrification of the Great Western main line, between London Paddington, Reading, Didcot, Swindon, Bristol and South Wales, along with the commuter routes to Oxford and Newbury, would be carried out in three stages between now and 2018.
Writing in The Times, Lord Adonis, a former Oxford University don and city councillor, said: "The passenger and operational benefits of electrification are immense. Electric trains are far quieter, more reliable, less polluting and cheaper to buy and maintain than diesel trains, and this difference is increasing over time.
"These main-line electrifications will pay for themselves over the medium term in reduced train and track running, leasing and maintenance costs."
As part of a £1.1bn programme to install 25,000-volt overhead power supply cables for trains, the Manchester-Liverpool main line, in North West England, will also be electrified. Preparatory work on both schemes will begin immediately
They are expected to be the start of a programme to electrify more of the national rail network, which could include the CrossCountry line linking Oxford, Banbury and Birmingham.
The decision will mean that most of First Great Western's fleet of diesel High Speed Trains will be replaced by new electric express trains and rather than extra diesel trains being ordered for suburban services in the Thames Valley, as was planned, new electric trains are likely to be ordered instead.
For services continuing to destinations beyond the electrified area, such as Oxford to Worcester services on the Cotswold Line through west Oxfordshire, the Government is developing a bi-mode train, with both electric and diesel power. However, Network Rail is known to favour using separate electric and diesel locomotives in some circumstances.
Network Rail chief executive Iain Coucher said: “Today is a good start, but there’s much further to go.
“Passengers will reap the benefits that electrified lines bring – quieter and smoother rides on trains that cause less wear and tear to track, that are more reliable and often faster.”
Sir Moir Lockhead, chief executive of First Group, which owns train operator First Great Western, said: “Lord Adonis’s announcement is good news for our customers.
"This will allow us to operate a very large proportion of journeys into and out of Paddington with electric trains, which maximises the environmental, reliability and journey time benefits electrification can bring.”
About 40 per cent of Britain’s 20,000-mile rail network is electrified, including many South East commuter routes and the main lines from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow.
On average, electric trains cause 20 to 30 per cent fewer CO2 emissions than diesel trains.
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