It has been clear some time that the campaign to revive a rolling programme of main line electrification has been losing momentum. Although Network Rail's Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TONS - pp12-13, October 2020 issue) was one of several studies highlighting electrification's dominant role in decarbonising the railway, optimism that rational analysis would lead to rational action was misplaced. I should have known better. It was assumed that reinstatement of the Midland main line electrification, truncated at Kettering/ Corby following the Hendy Review of November 2015, would signal the Government's intent. However, it is now clear that East West Rail (EWR) has, all along, been providing the most accurate indication of the Government's, or rather the Department for Transport's and the Treasury's, attitudes to electrification. When the second round of consultation on EWR began in June 2017, Network Rail revealed it had been instructed to remove electrification from the scope of the project at the instigation of the then Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. Mr Grayling had a 'thing' about electrification. And this was understandable, given the tattered figure of the Great Western Electrification Programme begging for alms at DfT's door.
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