to expand slowly, and large areas of the country outside London are not electrified. In 2007, the government's preferred option was to use diesel trains running on biodiesel, its White Paper Delivering a Sustainable Railway, ruling out large-scale railway electrification for the following five years. In May 2009, Network Rail launched a consultation on large-scale electrification, potentially to include the Great Western Main Line and Midland Main Line and smaller "in-fill" schemes. Key benefits cited were that electric trains are faster, more reliable and cause less track wear than diesel trains. On 5 June 2009, Lord Adonis was appointed Secretary of State for Transport, and announced the plans to electrify the Great Western Main Line from London as far as Swansea, as well as infill electrification schemes in the North West of England. In Scotland, where transport is devolved to the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland has extended and continues to expand electrification, for example, on the Airdrie–Bathgate rail link. This is part of a larger plan that has seen many major routes in central Scotland electrified, including the main – route. They have pursued electrification with multiple schemes in the Central Belt. All these have been 25kVAC, as in England and Wales. In July 2012 the UK government announced £4.2billion of new electrification schemes, all at 25kVAC and reconfirmed schemes previously announced by Adonis. These were to be Northern Hub, Great Western Main Line, South Wales Main Line, Midland Main Line, Electric Spine, Crossrail, Gospel Oak to Barking line and West Midlands suburban lines including the Cross-City Line. On 25 June 2015 the government announced that some of the electrification projects would be delayed or cut back because of rising costs. Electrification work was to be "paused" on the Trans-Pennine route between York and Manchester and on the Midland main line between Bedford and Sheffield. Electrification of the Great Western main line would go ahead but the status of the Reading–Newbury and Didcot–Oxford sections was unclear. However, in September 2015, the electrification work was "un-paused", but with a delayed completion date. Since then there have been regular updates including one published in October 2016. On 20 July 2017 Chris Grayling the Secretary of State for Transport cancelled a number of electrification projects citing disruptive works and use of bi-mode technology as an alternative. Electrification has not been without controversy with cancellations and various appearances of the Secretary of State for