As the electrification of the Leeds-Manchester rail line is again put under review to see if 'savings can be released', what successive authorities seem to miss is that each time they delay to review (to find costs savings), they're increasing the cost...
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As the electrification of the Leeds-Manchester rail line is again put under review to see if 'savings can be released', what successive authorities seem to miss is that each time they delay to review (to find costs savings), they're increasing the cost, making the extent of actual savings needed to make their target cost reduction that much harder, until eventually, the delays themselves raise costs so much the project (perhaps by design) becomes uneconomic.
#railways #infrastructure
h/t FT -
Alex P Roereplied to Emeritus Prof Christopher May last edited by
@ChrisMayLA6 See note below. Maybe instead of electrification with all the complex, rather unsightly (costly to maintain) infrastructure, they could use the review as an opportunity to look at hydrogen fuel cell locomotives? Something like this: https://newatlas.com/transport/flirt-h2-fuel-cell-train-guinness/ NOTE: From the comments I've been getting and after reading up a bit, I think battery-electric trains are a greener alternative to #hydrogen fuel cell trains.
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@alexproe @ChrisMayLA6 Hydrogen is greenwashing—it's almost 100% produced by reforming methane (natural gas): electrolysis from water is ferociously expensive. It's also much lower energy density per unit volume than methane, diffuses through metal, as a cryogenic liquid it's murderously hard to handle and embrittles seals and metal, and it's explosive when mixed with air in almost any ratio. Locos powered by hydrogen are leaking fuel-air explosive bombs, and you want them in passenger stations?