When it comes to railway fiascos, massive overspending and costs spiralling out of control, we tend to think instantly of HS2. But arguably the bigger fiasco is our national inability to electrify our existing rail network properly. Only 38% of our railway network is electrified, a long way behind France at 55%, Germany at 61%, Spain at 64%, and Italy at 71%. The Swiss have reached 100%.
Electrified railways are a good idea for many reasons, but one stands out. If Britain is to get its railways to net-zero by 2050, it will need to electrify more than 13,000km of track, equivalent to almost 500km of track every year for the next 27 years. According to Ben Hopkinson of Britain Remade, a campaign
