MP secures agreement for the Lakes Line to be a case study for electrification

Local MP Tim Farron and the Lakes Line Rail User Group met with representatives from the Railway Industry Association (RIA) in Westminster this week as part of the campaign to electrify the Lakes Line.

During the meeting, the RIA agreed to make the Lakes Line a case study for how you could complete an electrification scheme for between a third to half the cost that that the Department for Transport had originally estimated.

Plans to electrify the line were shelved back in 2017 by the Government due to a lack of available funding according to the National Audit Office.

Tim said: "I'm really grateful to the RIA in agreeing to makes the Lakes Line a case study for electrification.

"This gives us every chance that we will be able to present a cheaper version of electrification to Government in order to get them to change their mind.

"There is already a lot of pressure for the Department for Transport to do this from an environmental point of view. If the Government is serious about tackling climate change then it needs to be electrifying lines - especially the one taking people into Britain's second biggest visitor destination."