List of proposed railway electrification routes in Great Britain

In 2009 Lord Adonis was appointed Secretary of State for Transport and, after a gap of more than a decade, electrification of the UK rail network was back on the agenda with Adonis announcing plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line from London as far as Swansea, as well as infill electrification schemes in the North West of England.

Rail transport in Scotland is a devolved matter for the Scottish Government, but they too have pursued electrification with multiple schemes in the Central Belt.

Electrification work was to be "paused" on the Trans-Pennine route between York and Manchester and on the Midland main line between Bedford and Sheffield.

On 20 July 2017 Chris Grayling the Secretary of State for Transport cancelled a number of electrification projects citing disruptive works and use of bi-mode technology as an alternative.

The Transport Select Committee published its report into various matters including regional investment disparity on the railways and calling again for the reinstatement of various cancelled electrification schemes.

In September 2020 the TDNS (Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy) Interim Business case was published though it was dated 31 July 2020.

[4][5] Electrification of the North Wales Main Line from Crewe to Holyhead via Chester was announced by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 2023.

[24] Under Transport Secretary Chris Grayling many of the proposed electrification projects were cancelled, despite pledging to remove full diesel trains by 2040.

Preliminary work includes track and signalling to enable line speed improvements prior to the installation of overhead gantries and wires in 2022 ready for an October 2022 completion.

[34] Now the electrification scheme could be back on the agenda after transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed plans to spend nearly £600m on work to upgrade and electrify the TransPennine main line.

[36] On 28 July 2020, Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson announced plans to phase out fossil fuel use on the railway network by 2035.

[39] Transport Scotland has also published a list prioritising the projects and divided them into the categories of 1) in delivery, 2) in development, 3) under active consideration.

This will allow the Fife Circle services to be operated by battery electric multiple units whilst minimising capital expenditure on infrastructure, in particular avoiding the major expense of electrifying the Forth Bridge.

[61] The December 2016 date was not met and in May 2017 a further delay to the wires going live was announced due to a safety-critical component possibly for the whole route needing to be replaced.