Railway electrification and HS2

Network Rail published a strategy essentially stating that most of the Great Britain railway network should be electrified with 25 kV overhead wires, and hydrogen and batteries should be reserved for special cases. (In the case of hydrogen this is good, as making the hydrogen uses a large amount of energy. There is no need for railways to use hydrogen ever, or even batteries except in depots or maybe for very short branch lines.)

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Traction-Decarbonisation-Network-Strategy-Interim-Programme-Business-Case.pdf

So why do the UK government hate the idea of such investment? Indeed, they seem a LOT more keen to have OLE on roads than on railways!

A similar argument can be made re opposition to HS2. My issue is that it is insufficiently ambitious, even as proposed never mind with the misguided government cuts. I would make one change. The western leg of HS2, including Birmingham to Toton, should be built in full, and should be extended to Holyhead, Cairnryan, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The eastern leg of HS2 should still be built but it should be called HS5 and run from St Pancras to Leicester, Toton, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness. (Between Toton and Sheffield/York, and with the Birmingham to Toton bit, this is what the eastern leg would have been in any case.)

In case anyone asks - HS3 is "Northern Powerhouse Rail", also massively cut (so much for the government caring about the "red wall"). HS4 would be London to Swansea and Penzance, basically a replacement for the Great Western Main Line.

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