Electric Spine
English rail electrification project / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The "Electric Spine" was the name for part of a, now largely cancelled,[1] rolling programme of railway electrification projects[2] in England initially estimated to cost £800 million,[3][4] but later thought to cost close to £3 billion.[1] The aim was to form 25 kV AC overhead-wire electrified links northward from the Port of Southampton to major cities in northern and central England and dry port container terminals in the Midlands. The government wanted efficient electric-hauled freight trains to compete with road haulage.
In 2012, the spine was set to be completed within Network Rail's Control Period 5 (CP5, 2014–2019).[5] This was not the case, because various works were delayed,[6] suspended for several months,[7] moved into Control Period 6 (CP6, starting in 2019),[8][9] and then scrapped altogether[1] (despite various preliminary work, like bridge replacement, having been conducted).[10]
Other works associated with the project included gauge clearance for large shipping containers and electrified connections to adjacent electrified routes, depots and freight facilities.[5]
The north–south axis of the link leads to the spine name.