Proposed railway electrification in Great Britain

Northern Hub

As part of the Northern Hub project, the following lines in North West England and Yorkshire are to be electrified:

• Liverpool to Manchester Line: Manchester to Newton-le-Willows completed December 2013; to Liverpool, planned by December 2014 but actually February 2015.^[2][3]
• Liverpool to Wigan Line, planned by December 2014 but actually March 2015.^[4]
• Manchester to Preston (via Bolton) by December 2017 and Preston to Blackpool North: by May 2018.^[2][5][6] An October 2017 update says the Manchester - Preston section will now be after Dec 2017 ^[7] . As of August 2018 the work was still in progress. When complete this will provide an electrified route from Blackpool to the West Coast Main Line at Preston and then on to Manchester diverging from the West Coast Main Line at Euxton Jct. Originally, Preston - Blackpool was to be done before Manchester - Preston, but Network Rail said Preston - Blackpool needed to have new signaling and the opportunity was also taken to completely remodel Blackpool North and Kirkham & Wesham station and other remodeling improvements at Salwick and Poulton-le-Fylde. The scheme was to have followed with a new completion date of March 2018. Further delays ensued and a powered electric train (a Virgin Pendolino) finally carried out multiple test runs overnight on 14-15 May 2018, a few days after energisation.
• Bolton to Wigan North Western As a spin-off, in December 2013 it was announced that the branch from Bolton to Wigan North Western would also be electrified by 2017.^[8] However, the enhancements delivery plan update of September 2016 moved the completion date with only GRIP 3 being completed by then.^[9]
• The North TransPennine route, comprising the Huddersfield Line between Manchester Victoria and York via Huddersfield and Leeds: expected by 2022.^[10]
  • As an extension of this the Hull to Selby Line was going to follow: Hull Trains' planned to electrify the line between Temple Hirst Junction on the East Coast Main Line south of Selby and Hull using private finance. This moved closer to reality on 20 March 2014 when Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin confirmed in the House of Commons that he had made £2.4m available to move the project to the next stage of development, GRIP Stage 3.^[11] This scheme was to have joined the already planned transpennine electrification (part of the Northern Hub project) at Selby. In November 2016 this project was shelved indefinitely.^[12][13]

Great Western Main Line and South Wales Main Line

• The electrification of the GWML to Thingley Junction (near Chippenham) and the SWML via Bristol Parkway to Cardiff Central is the main priority, due for completion in December 2018.^[14][15] Electrification from Reading to Newbury will also follow the originally intended schedule for completion in 2018.^[15] Other initially planned associated electrification works have been delayed with no published completion date: these include the Thames Valley branch lines, the lines to Bristol Temple Meads (both via Bristol Parkway and Bath), the line from Cardiff Central to Swansea, and the line from Didcot to Oxford.^[15][14] On 20 July 2017, it was announced that the Cardiff-Swansea electrification project had been cancelled and that bi-mode trains would be used on the route.^[16]
• As a spin-off, the Valleys & Cardiff Local Routes will be electrified once the main route is complete.^[17]

Crossrail

New cross-London main line, originally due to open in December 2018. Opening has been delayed until 2019.

Gospel Oak to Barking Line

• Electrification announced July 2013.^[18] Major civil engineering with line closures started July 2016. Full in-service date was expected to be 30 June 2017.^[9] However, design errors and the late delivery of materials and structures meant that the project was delayed. The start of electric services was to be in May 2018^[19][20]. However TfL has since stated the new trains will start in November 2018.^[21]

West Midlands suburban lines

Extensions to the existing West Midlands suburban electrification:

• Cross-City Line electrification to be extended from Barnt Green to Bromsgrove by 2017.^[9][22] Due to delays in the project the first timetabled electric services were scheduled to start in May 2018.^[23] In March 2018, this was delayed to July 2018.^[24]
• Chase Line electrification to be extended from Walsall to Rugeley Trent Valley by 2017.^[25] Recent updates say that the wires are only going up in 2018 so there will clearly be a delay in the original date. ^{[26] [27]}

Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP)

This electrification scheme and associated works has come to mean Edinburgh -Glasgow via Falkirk High and was due to be complete by December 2016. The rolling programme would then follow with the route via Shotts. The scheme via Carstairs in association with the ECML electrification was completed in the early 1990s. With other infills in the central belt of Scotland there will soon be 4 different electrified routes between the two cities with assorted diversionary routes.^[28] The December 2016 date was not met and in May 2017 a further delay to the wires going live was announced due to a safety critical component possibly for the whole route needing to be replaced.^[29] . It was actually completed in December 2017^[30]. The infills include the route from Cumbernauld and Falkirk Grahamston to Larbert, Alloa, Dunblane and Stirling.

Midland Main Line

Bridges over the Midland Main Line in Bedfordshire have been replaced to allow greater clearances for electrification and larger rolling stock. Before (top) and after (bottom) the 2014 upgrade.

• Already electrified to Bedford. This was to be extended to Corby, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield. In November 2016 only the electrification to Kettering and Corby was confirmed as continuing with the DfT refusing to be drawn on dates for the remaining parts of the original scheme. On 20 July 2017, it was announced that the Kettering-Nottingham-Sheffield electrification project had been cancelled and that bi-mode trains would be used on the route.^[35]

Northern Hub

• Windermere Branch Line: In August 2013, the Department for Transport announced that the branch line between Oxenholme and Windermere was to be electrified by 2016.^[36] The Hendy review moved the completion of GRIP 3 to March 2017 with a yet to be determined date for completion of electrification. In July 2017 Chris Grayling the Secretary of State for Transport announced the scheme had been cancelled and bi-mode technology would be used. ^[37]

Electric Spine

• Electrification of the lines from the Port of Southampton to Nuneaton, and to the Midland Main Line via the East West Rail between Oxford and Bedford. This would have involved electrifying the Coventry to Nuneaton, and Coventry to Leamington Line, part of the Chiltern Main Line, Cherwell Valley Line and Reading to Basingstoke Line; also converting part of the South Western Main Line between Basingstoke and Southampton Central from 750 V DC third rail to 25 kV AC overhead.^[38] As a large portion of the spine depends on electrification of the Midland Main Line and this has been cancelled north of Kettering and defunded for East West Rail, it may be assumed this scheme has also been put on hold indefinitely.