Firms chosen to deliver £2bn rail electrification scheme

The successful bidders are Balfour Beatty; AmeyInabensa, a joint venture between Amey and Spain’s Inabensa; CarillionPowerlines, a Carillion and SPL Powerlines joint venture; and ABC Electrification, a consortium made up of Alstom, Babcock and Costain.

They will work with Network Rail to plan and deliver a range of schemes that will see routes in England, Wales and Scotland electrified for the first time.

Once electrification schemes including the Great Western and Midland main lines, Liverpool to Manchester and Preston, the Valley lines in south Wales and the ‘electric spine’ from Southampton docks to the West Midlands and Yorkshire are complete, more than half Britain’s rail network will be electrified with electric trains accounting for three-quarters of all traffic.

In a statement Simon Kirby, managing director of Network Rail’s infrastructure projects division, said: ‘Our work to electrify two thousand track miles represents the biggest programme of rail electrification in a generation and will provide faster, quieter and more reliable journeys for millions of passengers every week while cutting the cost of the railway.’