Modern Railways – April 2019

The way forward: laying down third rail. This is actually

replacement conductor rail on the Ouse Valley viaduct

on the Brighton main line. Courtesy Network Rail

Pan Up Ian Walmsley

40 Modern Railways April 2019 http://www.modern-railways.com

How the ORR killed third rail electrification and caused a million

tonnes of CO

2

emissions. Then a look at a real, live innovation

I

n March 2015 the Office of

Road and Rail issued its policy

on third rail electrification:

(i) The relevant duty holder must

be able to demonstrate that

any proposed new-build or

extended third rail proposal

will comply with all applicable

health and safety legislation.

(ii) There is a presumption against

the reasonable practicability

of new-build or extended

DC third rail in view of the

safety requirements duty

holders must satisfy in order

to justify the use of third rail.

(iii) Where existing third rail needs

to continue to be operated,

maintained and renewed for

the purpose of the railway,

the relevant duty holder

must ensure it continually

reviews such third rail and seek

improvements in the design,

operation and maintenance

of the third rail systems.

The rest of the document pretty

much repeats this in other ways, but

to sum it up, if you extend the third

rail and some pond life gets hurt you

are going to jail, do not pass go, do

not collect huge executive bonus.

Point (iii) is there so the ORR can

say ‘we told you so’ when someone

gets hurt on the existing system.

THE MOTIVE

Some might say that the motive is

the protection of the public, some

the protection of the ORR, but there

is no argument – the third rail is

dangerous. I am always very wary of it,

especially in depots where you might

need to step over it and where all the

shoegear of a unit on the juice is live.

But if you work on the railway you get

told this stuff often enough that even

the most inattentive student knows it.

As circumstantial evidence your

honour, I call up the Network Rail plan

of 2014 to convert all the third rail to

25kV overhead electrification. When

this came up at a research group

I attended, my first reaction was ‘how

can you justify re-electrifying third rail

routes when so many intensively used

lines in the North are not electrified?’

Following research procedure, I was

ignored and Network Rail made

this its policy, supported by the

flimsiest of business cases and using

£10 million per life saved as I recall.

Also at this time Network Rail

believed its little animated video,

which showed a factory train

rolling along planting masts like

tulip bulbs. 25kV electrification was

so easy, and when, in just a few

years’ time, we had finished the

main lines, we would be doing the

‘Electric spine’ from Southampton.

We can just keep rolling from

there and a decade or three later,

third rail will be a closed risk.

So in March 2015 ORR seized its

chance and pulled the breakers on

the third rail, bottoms were covered

and all was well. But not satisfied with

this, the Voltophobic organisation

went after 25kV, insisting on increased

clearances and adding much time

and cost to the programme. As

described by Roger Ford last month

(p28), this assisted the suicide of

25kV electrification as well. Would

you expect anything else? Well,

no, because if you are responsible

THIRD DEGREE MURDER

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