WHITEHALL could be forced to alter a multibillion-pound order for new electric trains because the tracks between London and South Wales will not be ready to run them.
Delays and cost increases to Network Rail’s project to electrify the Great Western Mainline are so severe that the government is likely to have to ask the Japanese train maker Hitachi to equip 21 trains with diesel as well as electric engines — or risk them standing idle.
Britain ordered the electric trains in 2012 as part of its £5.8bn Intercity Express Programme (IEP) order for the Great Western and East Coast lines. The Great Western part, worth almost £3bn, comprised 21 electric and 36 hybrid trains, which would be fitted with both types of engine.
But industry sources said turmoil at Network Rail, the state-owned company that maintains Britain’s train tracks, means the government may have to amend the order to avoid the embarrassment of buying trains it cannot run.
The trains are being built in Japan and assembled in a new factory in the northeast. The hybrid models are due to start arriving in May 2017 and the electric ones at a rate of four a month from February 2018.
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The cost of electrifying the Great Western route had soared from £548m in 2011 to £1.7bn in December — and is set to climb higher. The line to Cardiff was meant to be completed by December 2017, but this deadline will be missed due to the complexity of the project.
Network Rail’s new chairman, Sir Peter Hendy, is set to report next month on how he plans to get the company’s £38.5bn five-year spending plan back on track. Sources said he could further delay electrification of the linefrom Cardiff to Swansea.
His attempt to prioritise the Great Western was undermined last month when George Osborne insisted on restarting electrification of the Midland Mainline and TransPennine routes, which Hendy believes will spread resources thinly.
The Department for Transport said: “It was always planned that the first IEP trains to enter service from 2017 would be able to run on both electricity and diesel. Once electrification on the Great Western is complete, [they] will deliver average journey time savings of up to 15 minutes.”