References and Links
Government/Parliament/Public bodies
- UK government
- Transport Decarbonisation Plan for all transport modes. Commits to a large rail electrification programme and introduction of alternatives for non-electrified track; based on Network Rail's TDNS. More details are promised once Great British Railways is up and running.
- The Integrated Rail Plan for the North and Midlands is primarily about HS2, but does commit to electrification of the Midland Main Line to Sheffield, and the Trans Pennine Update (Manchester-York) by the early 2030s.
- The Union Connectivity Review recommends setting up a strategic transport planning body, UKNET, to focus on major transport corridors - a similar concept to the major town links advocated in this website. Mentions electrification of several lines, including N Wales mainline.
- Transport Scotland has published its rail decarbonisation action plan to decarbonise by 2035. See also their prioritisation page.
- Transport for the North has given an overview of their recommendations for improving the rail network across N England. This is primarily about improving travel times, and is not specifically about decarbonisation. It does however include electrification of Leeds-Hull and Sheffield-Hull, besides the main Liverpool-Manchester-Bradford-Leeds connection.
- Commons transport select committee 2019 - Trains fit for the future - written evidence - submissions from manufacturers and others concerned with railways. Of the manufacturers, Bombardier state their trains are modular and batteries can easily be added; recharge 7-10 minutes under catenaries; range up to 100km. Hitachi diesel bi-mode 5% greater weight than pure electric; design/build/deliver 2-3 years (their submission includes a map of which routes might be suitable for different technologies). See also Government response.
- The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes annual rail infrastructure and assets reports, which include the amount of electrified track.
Rail industry
- The interim report of the Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy, led by Network Rail was published in 2020
- Rail Industry Decarbonisation Taskforce: final report, July 2019; recommended amongst other things that each organisation within the rail industry should produce a long-term plan for decarbonisation.
- The Rail Industry Association's RailDecarb21 campaign urges a rolling electrification programme plus orders for low-carbon trains. Its Electrification Cost Challenge made recommendations for speeding up and reducing cost of track electrification.
Campaign groups and press articles
Non-decarbonisation rail data
- Phil Deaves' site:
- Network Rail divides the network into 5 regions split into 14 sub-regions, which it rather confusingly calls routes
- the Sectional Appendix is the reference work of all the lines for which they are responsible. There's an online version (access available on request), or downloadable (large) pdfs of each route/region, which lists all lines by Line Of Route (LOR) code; details give ELR, max speeds, and whether electrified, and list mileage for every station, junction, loop, etc. Does not however give the timing points (TIPLOC) used in schedule data, and there doesn't appear to be a xref of which TIPLOCs are on which ELR/LOR, making it hard to match timetable data with line/route data.
- the yearly Network Statement includes an overall national electrification map, but it's hard to discern details on this.
- the network specification for each of its routes/regions contains overview sketch maps of electrified/non-electrified lines along with max speeds, but these are mainly several years old, and not up-to-date.
- OpenRailwayMap is a worldwide raster tile presentation of the railway network, updated daily. It uses OpenStreetMap data, but assumes the presence of certain tags, not consistently present for GB.