Railway electrification

Prime minister Gordon Brown and transport secretary Andrew Adonis have disclosed that work is to start immediately to electrify major parts of the UK rail network.

A £1.1bn government investment will lead to the electrification of the London to Swansea and Liverpool to Manchester lines. The news will mean that electric main line trains will run in Wales for the first time.

Currently, only 33 per cent of the rail network is electrified, including most of the south east of England, and the main lines from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as the Merseyrail network around Liverpool and the Glasgow suburban network.

The Liverpool-Manchester electrification will be completed within four years and the London-Swansea electrification within eight years, although stages in between will be completed earlier.

Electrification, combined with other improvements to track and signalling on the line, will mean that minimum journey times between Liverpool and Manchester will be reduced from 44 to 30 minutes and between London and Swansea by 19 minutes.