The impact on proposed electrofication in the UK to railway infrastructure design - Essay Example

closures followed after the issue of the Serpell report, which sought to secure improved financial results for the Railways (www.railwaysarchive.co.uk). This has however, only led to road congestion and according to the figures released by the Department of the environment, transport and the regions (DETR), 7% of the road network suffers congestion and 13% suffers heavy congestion for at least half of the year (DETR, 2000:41). Development of the rail network and its electrification has been mooted as a solution to the road congestion problem.

The operation of rail services includes the operation of the infrastructure, such as the track and signalling, as well as the operation of freight and passenger services. This study will examine the proposals for rail electrification in the U.K. and its potential impact, to assess the benefits and costs, in order to derive a plan that can be applied for modification of the rail transport network. The Government has recently announced a plan to spend £1 billion to electrify the rail lines between London and Swansea (BBC News Report, 2009).

Existing diesel lines are also proposed to be converted to electric, because the benefits are likely to be cheaper, cleaner and more reliable transport. Therefore it has been suggested that despite the initial large investments in infrastructure that would need to be made, it is likely to be beneficial since the investment would pay for itself over a 40 year period and there would be no increase in fares. In arguing in favour of electrifying the rail network into Wales, Barry (2009) has argued that rail electrification would have a beneficial effect on the economy, despite the infrastructure changes that would be required.

This infrastructure expense is considerable and has been estimated to be from about £800,000 to £1m, while the amount of track that needs to be covered would be about 90 miles, thereby bringing the costs to £90m. But the benefits which would result include the