23.01.18
Grayling: ‘No obvious passenger benefit’ to Midland Main Line electrification
Transport secretary Chris Grayling told the Commons Transport Committee yesterday that his decision to cancel further electrification on the Midland Main Line north of Kettering came down to the value for money provided by the project.
In a tough afternoon for the secretary, he was grilled on his approach to nationwide electrification after the cancellation of two major plans in August last year, including both the East Midlands work and the Great Western route between Cardiff and Swansea.
Committee chair Lilian Greenwood asked Grayling why he had made the decision to scrap the projects despite the apparent economic and environmental benefits listed in the initial business cases.
The secretary defended his highly contentious decision by claiming that passengers had been saved from years of disruption, with the DfT choosing to use bi-mode trains on these services instead.
After taking questions on the use of bi-mode trains, which have been criticised for their day-to-day cost and negative effect on the environmental, Grayling said that he expected British railways to move towards hydrogen-fuelled stock in future.
However, Greenwood was not impressed with the transport secretary’s explanation for cancelling the projects, specifically quizzing him on the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) analyses that he had provided.
“I think you should account for and justify the decision that you made and we simply do not have that information,” she said.
Grayling responded by saying that any electrification would have to be followed by the development of new rolling stock on these networks, a move that is not completely necessary because of the availability of bi-mode trains.
He went on to explain that plans to electrify the Midland Main Line were not cost-effective, especially when the DfT has other priorities to explore across the country.
“I could not see the rationale in spending a billion pounds saving a minute on the journey time to Sheffield rather than spending the money on projects elsewhere in the network that would make a genuine capacity difference,” he commented.
Grayling added that there were “no obvious passenger benefits” to this electrification plan, compared to other capacity improvement projects on the network and said he wanted “to deliver the best possible outcome for passengers”
He said that, when the plans were developed six years ago, it had not been clear to the government that there would be so many difficulties in the implementation of such schemes.
“I suspect that, back in 2012, the electrification programme seemed to be simpler and easier to achieve than it actually is,” Grayling said.
Although he defended his decision to scrap specific projects, the transport secretary did admit that some of the electrification that is currently underway has been behind schedule.
He said: “The progress of electrification is not going as smoothly as I would have wished.”
On the subject of Great Western route electrification between Cardiff and Swansea, the Grayling said there would have been years of disruption to local residents and that bi-mode operations have brought all the benefits of full electrification without these problems.
“I don’t buy the argument that any rail user is losing out as a result of this. Actually, we’ve been very careful to protect the passenger benefits,” Grayling said.
“We’ve really got to get away from the idea that the mode of traction on a train is what determines the passenger experience.”
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