Jim Steer says the rail industry needs to find a way to specify and carry out route upgrades and electrification more cost-effectively. He says that in the case of Great Western, it is not clear whether the business case for the full scheme is still valid. “The basic economics of electrification centre on an efficiency gain: electric trains have lower energy costs and lower maintenance costs. The more trains, the better the investment case. The GWR, as it sets off from Paddington, has plenty of trains, and so a good core business case. But by the time it has reached Didcot, 53 miles out, it has split into four separate routes… intensity of use diminishes, and with it, the investment case weakens.”
We've read it in: Transport Times, December 2016, Page 12
