London and South Wales are now closer to benefitting from a fully electrified railway as Network Rail has completed the electrification of the Severn Tunnel.
It now means that for the first time, an electric railway will run from Cardiff and Newport to London Paddington.
At 134-years-old, the Severn Tunnel has a challenging environment. Over 14 million gallons of water are pumped out every day by Sudbrook pumping station to stop it from flooding.
Sudbrook pumping station is also set to be renewed as part of the upgrade.
Mark Langman, Network Rail's managing director for Wales and Western said: “I am absolutely delighted that the Severn Tunnel is now fully electrified, resulting in a seamless rail link for passengers between Cardiff and London Paddington. Electrification has reduced journey times between south Wales and London by as much as 15 minutes and provided an additional 15,000 weekday seats compared with a year ago, with the possibility of further increasing the number of services and seats from south Wales in the future. It has been a hugely complex task to electrify the tunnel but I'm thrilled that the final piece of the puzzle is now complete. I would like to thank passengers and lineside neighbours for their patience over the past decade as we worked to deliver the transformation of this vital railway and am pleased that they will benefit from these improvements for years to come.”
Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: It's fantastic to announce the line between the capitals of Wales and England is fully electric at last, benefitting both passengers and the environment through quicker, greener, more reliable journeys. The completion of this ambitious project is just one part of our record investment to deliver the most significant upgrade of the UK's railways since Victorian times, transforming travel for passengers right across the UK.”
Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart said: It is crucial that Wales has cutting-edge transport links to help people travel to work, encourage inward investment and better connect it to the rest of the UK in order to boost prosperity. As we seek to grow our economy once again, I look forward to continued collaboration with Network Rail to improve connections, cut journey times and create world-class transport infrastructure in Wales.”
Ken Skates, Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales, said: “The completion of the electrification works in the Severn Tunnel is welcome news in terms of improving journey times between Capitals and delivering towards our decarbonisation agenda for transport. I would like to thank Network Rail for completing this work in what must have been challenging circumstances. I hope that the completion of this work can be taken as a strong signal of intent from Network Rail and the UK Government that there is more investment to come to improve journey times and capacity across South Wales in the future, including electrification westwards beyond Cardiff. Clearly in the present circumstance travel should be undertaken only if it is essential, however we continue to plan for the future and this scheme is a clear example of this.”
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Should of electrified the whole line to Swansea by all counts. But what a shame that it didn’t and it only stops at Cardiff Central.
They should have built a railway under the new second crossing and shut the Severn Tunnel
“14 million gallons” – i.e. 63 million litres. We’re supposed to have gone metric 40 years ago.
My thanks to Sulzer 88 for the additional information/explanation
(I thought editors should have done that job)
For interested parties, I can recommend the article on Focus Transport that
gives much more info above just the headline/press release above
Thanks for the feedback, we included all the information that we were given by Network Rail. Unfortunately, they did not provide any additional information on the source of the water. The other website you mention appears to have the original Network Rail press release along with include information copied/pasted from another railway website, who looked at the challenges faced in upgrading the line some time ago.
The great spring is below the tunnel and pumped.out so would never cone anywhere near the Overhead electric equipment. The tunnel is generally not affected by huge amounts of seawater although is a very damp salty atmosphere which the equipment has been designed and modified to withstand. Normal overhead wire would nt withstand those elements so a sold conductor bar has been installed. If I remember correctly the only ingress of seawater is where the 2nd severn crossing crosses the railway tunnel.
Shame that Network Rail aren’t going to electrify to Swansea and have ended at Cardiff Central. But what a achievement it makes to make the railways lot more greener and reliable.
AAh, The Great Spring !
(I am not talking a suspension item here)
I trust that the water and the electricity never meet up, fingers crossed.
Could someone technically minded explain how this will be prevented from ever happening
as our Editor, Michael, never seems to go into anything technical in these copied from
Railtrack press releases.