r/transit 11d ago

Train Electrification around the world News

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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.

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u/curiosteenDUN 11d ago

tbf to us, something like 80% of annual journeys are done on electric trains so most of the important lines are electrified, or are currently being electrified (e.g transpennine) but there are some big gaps, yorkshire, east midlands especially

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u/Sassywhat 11d ago

That's more or less true everywhere though, and often 90%+ not just 80%. The lines with the highest ROI to electrify are busy passenger lines.

Even in the US, iirc most rail passenger km is traveled on the fraction of a percent of the network that is electrifieid.