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36% of cars being plug in implies a fall in car fuel use of something like 2% per year compared to a zero battery electric vehicle counterfactual. That's going to become noticeable pretty quickly if the rate keeps increasing. With my climate/energy researcher hat on, I have come to the...

If the Sprinter fails, the Turbos it is coupled to would presumably drag it clear? (As noted the unit would be modified to operate with the Turbos and would only ever be used in the centre of trains) Only very rarely does a failure of a unit render a train dead and unable to move. Especially as...

Well, if we were being hyper cynical, they might have calculated that they are "too big to fail" and that their debts are functionally underwritten by the state. The airport industry does seem to be shot through with moral hazard.

My understanding was that that was due to minor changes in the specification rather than a clean sheet redesign of the multiple working standard. As such a unit would never have to work with other Sprinters again, it could be modified to be compatible.

The cheapest option would probably be to get a Turbo or Sprinter retrofitted with a tube interior to add to the train on the Regatta weekend. Find the least rusted out Class 150? 3 car Sprinter sandwiched between two two car Turbos so no need for traction knowledge

Road fuel demand in the UK is falling and is likely to keep falling. The government may want to prop up this refinery for the sake of some headlines, but it is the smallest remaining refinery and probably was in the worst position, even before Prax got hold of it.

I think most of what there was was run mostly by Class 73s, I think mostly departmental stuff and various lighter freights such as MoD vans.

Well, Wikipedia suggests they have "only" 4MW on DC, as opposed to 5MW on 25kV. Obviously the usual health warnings about Wiki apply, but if true that is still easily enough to replace diesel operation.

Well electric freight is pretty rare in of itself! In a world of cheap, very lightly taxed, diesel and Class 66s everywhere, electric freight operation simply hasn't been something many operators have really bothered with on a large scale. Third rail freight should be achievable assuming...

Yes, but I reckon thats mostly due to diesel operations being preferred over electric operations generally. If we can get a Class 99 capability locomotive with third rail, so much the better. But right now I wouldn't really want to surrender more or less the last third rail freight capability.

Well you have a lot of costs in setting up a project team, acquiring site compounds and all that, but with very few kilometres of electrification to amortise these costs over.

We can get 200 miles on electric instead of diesel by simply buying the Class 99 instead though. The electrification of Gateway and Felixstowe would likely cost enough that the Government could just give freightliner Class 99s one for one for the Class 90s and come out ahead though. Gateway...

I didn't think they had been, but I am not necessarily up to date, so I thought I would hedge! I didn't include Class 92 because they have a capability that Class 99s lack that could be useful later (750V operation).

You won't get much electrification for the cost of simply giving everyone Class 99s to replace the remaining Class 86s, 87s and 90s in use.

Electrodiesels mean that electrification should be installed on those sections of track where it reduces diesel burn by the most per unit cost. A short single track freight dominated branch is probably not going to score particularly well on that score. Single track railways have relatively low...

Marlow is going to need a specialised fleet of short units whatever happens, because of the junction geometry at Bourne End. Unless you convert the Bourne End-Marlow section to a Doppelmayr cableliner or something..... (Other brands are available)

I'm not sure it has. Essentially all the benefits of electrification of the Felixstowe branch can be achieved with Class 99 purchases. Sure they'd still burn diesel on the branch line, but that will be not be a substantial portion of the fuel burn over a full unelectrified route. They will need...

Well, if it wasn't for a lack of 750V capability I would suggest the best thing the government could spend electrification budget on would be to buy 400 of them and try to sell the freight operators on a scrappage scheme for the existing diesel fleet.

We have National Transportation Survey statistics for England from 2023. The response for frequency of Surface Rail use for that year was as follows (from NTS0313): three or more times per week - 5% once or twice per week - 4% less than once a week, more than once or twice a month - 4% once or...

As it stands, that is true, but I think reinforcement of the existing third rail line is likely to come out substantially cheaper than either conversion or attempting to electrify via Andover. I hesitate to bring it up, but right now SNCF is installing a superconducting 1500V feeder cable at...