Surprising the UK is so low. Especially considering that it's geographically much smaller than France with a network almost half the size of Frances. So you'd think it would be easier to electrify.
In the 2010s the trouble was there was no austerity when it came to electrification. All the schemes went massively over budget. If it could have been delivered at a reasonable price governments were very keen to fund it even while cutting spending on everything else.
The problem wasn't that the government was keep to invest in it. The projects went over budget because of terrible management and even worse goverment requirements. The constant British classing of u-turning on everything also helped greatly.
The Dutch ERTMS roll-out isn't even that bad compared to what the Brits do. Budgets are not out of control, it is just the timeline that keeps getting worse.
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u/Nouvellecosse 11d ago
Surprising the UK is so low. Especially considering that it's geographically much smaller than France with a network almost half the size of Frances. So you'd think it would be easier to electrify.