North West Electrification

[Ringo]

1. Phase 1: Due for completion by December 2013, covers the installation of 25 kV 50 Hz overhead electrification on 30 km of double track between Castlefield Junction in Manchester and Newton-le-Willows Junction, as well as the curve onto the West Coast Main Line at Lowton Junction.
   
2. Phase 2 : This is due to be energised by December 2014. Involves wiring the remaining 21 km of double track between Earlestown and Bootle Branch Junction, completing electrification between Manchester and Liverpool Lime Street.
   
3. Phases 3 and 4 : By December 2016. Will see the remaining sections from Huyton to Wigan, Ordsall Lane Junction to Euxton Junction via Bolton, and finally Preston to Blackpool North electrified.

Rolling stock is to be cast-off Thames-link trains.

[86217Comet]

Its great that these routes are at last being electrified. I reckon they should also electrify the Man-Vic to Leeds line and maybe even as far as York too.

[boilersuit]

Cast-off Thameslink units eh! Oh you lucky people...

[Tony]

WOW ! Only four years to electrify less than 100 miles of railway. The whole Manchester - Liverpool route was built from scratch in less time nearly 200 years ago. This country must be the laughing stock of the World for the length of time any infrastructure installation takes and the sky-high costs of such works. Isn't the North West lucky to be allocated worn out, 20 year old trains from the London commuter belt? I suppose that the cost of the 159 coaches of the 185's several years ago have emptied the piggy bank for the next 20 years.

[Resolution]

Tony, ...Finding myself awake at this ungodly hour. Well, ... I am retired, and beginning to see what Victor Meldrew was all about. I found myself laughing and at the same time crying at the reality of Britain today. Suffering as it has done for decades after WW2, from what I see as 18th century style class warfare and willful mismanagement from politicians and the wealthy movers of our society to keep us down.

Let me contrast that with.... Germany. They, were bombed heavily into submission, not a city was untouched. Yet their economy had overtaken ours by 1960! Their people were better off, they were paid higher wages, and were driving their Mercedes Benz well before a working class man in Britain could even dream of car let alone a.....Jaguar!

Fast forward now to the future...............2012! The German Railways, no....they are not ....perfect there are many complaints but, they are cheaper, tend to run on time, and are less crowded.

I witnessed with my own eyes over about 3yrs the building of a high speed link between Garmisch-Partienkirchen to Koln (Cologne) and beyond in one go, NOT piecemeal, all at once! Tunnels, Bridges, Viaducts, cuttings....New stations like the Frankfurt Airport (view it on Google Earth). 400 miles of high speed track with men and machinery working all along it's length!

The route is also linked to Antwerp, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg.....

...and the British? oh! well we do have 60 miles of track between Folkstone and London but the Bedfordshire Luddites won't let us build it any further than that..... Truly...I despair!

The Germans now are getting ICE3, a double - decked tilting double glazed hermetically sealed train (so as not to subject passengers to noise and air pressure changes when entering tunnels etc at 300+ Km/hr).
There are "Family Rooms" on the upper deck so that other passengers are not subjected to exited children causing a noise nuisance to them whilst maybe trying to work on their laptop Wi-Fi connection.

Do you know when I last felt so humiliated?......it was in 1981, we landed at Heathrow on a 747 from San Francisco. We didn't go to a terminal........Oh! no, a fleet of old London buses with solid suspension, uncomfortable solid seats and a clippy who pressed the bell to tell the driver to start.......ding! ding!

I don't know what the Yanks thought, but I know what I did.....


Still, hey.....We've got aircraft carriers now you know....no planes mind you. Aaaand! we have nuclear rockets........if the Americans will let us fire them! What a Great Country we Are Eh? Oh well, maybe not......

Sorry for the rant, but I've got nothing much better to do just now and I feel better if you don't.

I reckon it's all got to do with "priorities"... "Class Warfare"... a corrupt system and corrupt politicians............Res.

[springs branch mickey]

But Come the revolution........
mickey

[62440]

Resolution.... I wouldn't argue with a word of that!

Regards, 62440.

[bigmacca1]

Even when the OHLE goes up they'll still be running dmus and diesel-electrics under it because they can't think 'out of the box.' Some comedian was in last month's Railway Magazines telling us how grateful we should have been for the 'Pacers'....reckoning they were better than the heritage dmus they replaced. He'd never been more than two stops on one, obviously. A Derby lightweight is as far removed from a 141/142 'nodding donkey' as it's possible to get, even with the rattling windows, the roar of the Leyland diesels and the clag emitted at each station! If I wanted to ride on a bus (even a converted one) I would go to the bus station!