“We’ve been working with Network Rail for the best part of two years now on the best route for getting diesels off the West of England,” explains Neil Drury, South Western Railway’s engineering director.
“This will involve discontinuous third rail, minimising the cost of decarbonising the route.”
The line from Basingstoke through Salisbury to Exeter has always been a Cinderella route.
A long-distance, inter-city journey that hasn’t felt like a premium service for generations. A diesel anomaly in SWR’s otherwise all-electric network. A route with poor performance, long stretches of single line, and frequent infrastructure challenges.
Its fleet of Derby-built, Salisbury-based Class 158/9 diesels are already nudging 35 years old. Without significant investment they have (at very best) fewer than ten years of working life left.
What could replace them?…
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RAIL (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 1020