Campaign to Electrify Britain's Railways

Campaign to Electrify Britain's Railways (CEBR) is an internet based campaign group formed in 2018 whose aim is to see Britain's railways electrified by exerting political pressure and presenting at conferences where possible. It is thus not a railway enthusiast society in the strictest sense. They do regional town hall meetings with invited speakers. Their slogan is "Down with dirty diesel". They believe that a rolling programme of electrification will vastly improve the UK Railways and at the same time help to decarbonise transport and improve the environment. They collaborate with the Railway Industry Association, the Rail Delivery Group and the BCRRE[1] and the Campaign for Better Transport[2] amongst others and have given evidence to the Transport Select Committee. The chairperson of that parliamentary committee at the time of formation of CEBR was Lilian Greenwood who supports their efforts.[3] The new chairperson as of February 2020 is Huw Merriman.[4] They also met with Tim Farron in September 2019 to campaign for electrification of the Lakes line and he supports their efforts.[5] Other organisations such as the Institute of Electrical Engineers also hold conferences and seminars on the theme of railway electrification and thus also collaborate with Campaign to Electrify Britain's Railways.[6] The Permanent Way Institution has done likewise.[7]

Reason for inception

The decarbonization of transport, especially but not limited to London and urban areas is a stated UK government aim which seems to have all party support.[8] In September 2019, Transport for Scotland announced the more aggressive goal of having Scottish transport net carbon neutral by the year 2035.[9][10][11] This would be by a rolling programme of electrification and where that is not feasible by using battery and other emerging technology.

The CEBR manifesto states: "The UK has suffered from too many boom and bust infrastructure projects. (This view is supported by others[12]). A steady, planned, rolling programme will reduce costs, speed up journey times, create more seats on more reliable trains - and ultimately reduce ticket prices". The CEBR are a group of like-minded people who have started the campaign and have their own website and Twitter feed. In April 2019 they launched their own Facebook page too. They admit  the campaign is relatively new and they don't have all the answers. They encourage anyone with any thoughts, ideas, questions or want to get involved to contact them. They staged a protest on top of Snowdon.[13] In July 2019, the final report of the rail decarbonisation project was published.[14]

Main campaign points

Many, but not all diesel trains use only friction brakes (as do cars and trucks) to slow or stop the train. This wears the discs and pads introducing particulates into the atmosphere. Electric trains predominantly use the motors in regeneration mode to slow the train, producing almost zero particulates. The technology does not yet exist to stop the train completely.[15] This would improve the health of the nation but in particular for people who live closer to the railway. In addition, regenerative braking saves energy and is more efficient and thus helps the low-carbon economy. Diesel trains also generate soot and particulates from the engines, often clearly visible in the air. Electrification vastly reduces or even eliminates this problem thus bringing cleaner and healthier air. Electric power can be sourced from a diversified grid and thus reduce the effects of oil and geopolitics. Petroleum and petroleum based products were used as a weapon after the Yom Kippur War quadrupling the price of oil after an OPEC embargo.[16] The Fuel protests in the United Kingdom particularly in the year 2000, virtually crippled UK transport and it was only a day away from bringing the diesel railway to a standstill.[17][18][19]

Railway electrification in Great Britain
Main article: Railway electrification in Great Britain

Railway electrification in Great Britain started in the late 19th century. After World War II and the nationalisation of the railways in 1948 and the 1955 Modernisation Plan, electrification commenced in earnest.[20] There was a pause and then the West Coast Main Line north of Weaver Junction to just south of Glasgow was electrified in the 1970-1974 timeframe. Small amounts then followed and then a spurt of electrification activity occurred in the 1980s. There was then a lull in electrification activity in the mid 1990 to 2009 timeframe. In 2009, Lord Adonis was appointed Secretary of State for Transport. After a gap of more than a decade, electrification was back on the agenda and Adonis announced plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line from London as far as Swansea, as well as infill electrification schemes in the North West of England.[21] In July 2012 the UK coalition government announced new electrification schemes, all at 25 kV AC and reconfirmed schemes previously announced by Adonis. Devolved rail transport in Scotland has allowed the Scottish government to pursue electrification with multiple schemes in the Central Belt. This has been followed up by further commitment to a low carbon economy and modal shift to enable it.[22]

However, electrification has not been without controversy with horrendous cost overruns and late running schemes. This led to cancellations of projects[23] and various appearances of the Secretary of State for Transport called before the Transport Select Committee.[24] Shortly after this, Campaign to Electrify Britain's Railways was launched to try and mitigate the boom and bust cycle.

Future railway electrification in Great Britain
Main article: Proposed railway electrification in Great Britain

In an attempt to mitigate and improve the cost situation and thus persuade government to backtrack on its electrification cancellations, the Railway Industry Association published a report in March 2019 detailing why costs had risen and suggested ways forward.[25] Campaign to Electrify Britain's Railways heavily circulated and advertised this report. The central message of this report is that electrification is the way forward and that costs can be contained by learning the lessons and having a rolling program of electrification rather than boom and bust/feast and famine cycles. The answer to a written question in parliament regarding route miles electrified in the years 1997-2019 made rather stark reading.[26]

In a document dated July 31, 2020, Network Rail published Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS) Interim Programme Business Case. This recommended approximately 13,000 STKs (single track kilometres) of further electrification of the UK railways to meet the net zero carbon requirements.[27] Railways in Scotland are a devolved matter but all parties including the Green Party are vigorously campaigning for electrification.[28]

Roger Ford the technical editor of Modern Railways often writes about similar themes and coined the phrase 'Bionic duckweed". This refers to putting off what needs to be done today because something new in the future maybe just around the corner[29] to refer to schemes that are not based on electrification but alternative technologies such as biodiesel and Hydrogen. Other writers have done likewise including writers for the Financial Times.[30][31][32] Other authors also cite issues with the huge inefficiency of Hydrogen as opposed to electrification.[33]

See also

References
  1. "BCRRE Rail Alliance". Rail Alliance. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  2. Transport, Campaign for Better. "Campaigns". Campaign for Better Transport. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  3. PoliticsHome.com (2019-06-10). "Lilian Greenwood: The opportunity to future-proof our rail network is here". PoliticsHome.com. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  4. 2020-02-03T06:00:00+00:00. "Huw Merriman elected Chair of the Transport Select Committee". Railway Gazette International. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  5. Railway, Campaign to Electrify Britain's (2019-09-04). "Really pleased to discuss enabling affordable electrification on the Lakes Line, with @timfarron - and a rolling programme of electrification #railelectrificationpic.twitter.com/BiuBmp9mWI". @Rail_Elec. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  6. "Decarbonisation of Transport through Electrification Summit". IEEE - UK and Ireland Section. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
  7. Lawrance and Hodge. "PWI Lecture Northern Hub and beyonf". Archived from the original on 2018-09-22.
  8. McArdle, Conor (2018-06-21). "The decarbonisation of transport: The next step". The Opus Energy Blog. Archived from the original on 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
  9. Keane, Kevin (2019-05-02). "Scotland to set 'faster' climate change target". Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  10. "Protecting Scotland's Future: the Government's Programme for Scotland 2019-2020 - gov.scot". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  11. "Scotland plans to decarbonise its railways by 2035". Global Railway Review. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
  12. "Transport Britain". Transport Britain. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  13. "Electrification protest on Snowdon". Rail Business Daily. 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  14. "Decarbonisation – our final report to the Rail Minister". www.rssb.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  15. "Regenerative braking boosts green credentials - Railway Gazette". 2014-03-11. Archived from the original on 2014-03-11. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  16. "Milestones: 1969–1976 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  17. "BBC News | UK | Fuel crisis hits services". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  18. Hetherington, Peter; Ward, David (2000-09-11). "Fuel crisis looms as pickets hit depots". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  19. "BBC NEWS | In Depth | World fuel crisis | UK fuel tax: The facts". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-27.
  20. "Electrification 1955" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-24.
  21. "July 2009 Electrification UK Government paper" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-05-16. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  22. "Scottish investment to support decarbonisation and modal shift". Rail Technology Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  23. "Rail electrification plans scrapped". 2017-07-20. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  24. "Transport Select Committee Report June 2018" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-04-01.
  25. "Electrification Cost Challenge Report". www.riagb.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  26. "Railways: Electrification:Written question - 219526". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  27. "Network Rail Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy Interim Programme Business Case" (PDF).
  28. "Rail for All Scottish Green Party" (PDF).
  29. Committee, Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Transport (2008-07-24). Delivering a Sustainable Railway: A 30-year Strategy for the Railways? : Tenth Report of Session 2007-08 : Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence. The Stationery Office. ISBN 9780215522221.
  30. Financial Times. "Why Tech is not always the answer - The Perils of Bionic Duckweed".
  31. Deshpande, Prasad. "Bionic Duckweed". thelantern.substack.com. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  32. "Why tech isn't always the answer — the perils of bionic duckweed". The World News Monitor. 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  33. "Liebreich: Separating Hype from Hydrogen – Part Two: The Demand Side". BloombergNEF. 2020-10-16. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
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