Campaign to Electrify Britain's Railway

The campaign promotes a rolling programme of electrification, which it considers essential to improve UK railways and help to decarbonise transport.

Petroleum and petroleum-based products were used as a weapon after the Yom Kippur War, quadrupling the price of oil after an OPEC embargo.

After World War II and the nationalisation of the railways in 1948 and the 1955 Modernisation Plan, electrification commenced in earnest.

[18] After a pause, the West Coast Main Line north of Weaver Junction to just south of Glasgow was electrified between 1970 and 1974.

Small amounts of the rail system then followed, with more electrification occurring in the 1980s, including the East Coast Main Line.

Devolved rail transport in Scotland has allowed the Scottish government to pursue electrification with multiple schemes in the Central Belt.

The UK government aims to decarbonize all rail transport by 2040, a measure that has broad parliamentary support.

The answer to a written question in parliament regarding route miles electrified in the years 1997-2019 made rather stark reading.

[34] Roger Ford, the technical editor of Modern Railways, often writes about similar themes and coined the phrase “Bionic duckweed".

[41] On 23 March 2021, the Transport Select Committee published a report in the 'Trains Fit for the Future" enquiry, which recommended a rolling programme of electrification that allowed for battery and hydrogen.

[42] The report was also highlighted in the mainstream press, featuring how Members of Parliament were calling for a rolling programme of electrification.

[43] In March 2021, in the April issue of Modern Railways magazine also reported that work was underway to extend OHL electrification to Market Harborough, but that the SPL Powerlines contractor was working in conjunction with Network Rail to extend wires beyond this to Sheffield and Nottingham.

[44] On 22 April 2021, along with an open letter[45] to Grant Shapps with fifteen signatures, the Railway Industry Association published their report "Why Rail Electrification".

However, in December 2021 plans were leaked showing the treasury had declined to provide funding to electrify and decarbonise the railways.

[55][56][57] Further outcry came after it was revealed in The Guardian that the majority of civil servants who wrote the plan don't even live in the North or Midlands.

[70] Geopolitics and the desire to reduce reliance on oil has once again put rail electrification high on the agenda.