As often gets raised by the public frustrated by noisy, unreliable or polluting trains - if the alternatives to electrification are so good, why is electrification almost universally the right answer on the rest of Europe's railways? Britain's railway challenges are little different from those faced by colleagues in the Netherlands or Belgium with their equally congested and complex networks, yet when it comes to powering our trains we are consistently led to different solutions. This session's panel will look at those alternative options and discuss where they fall down, where they may bring genuine benefits, why these alternatives are taking as long time to materialise as the conventional electrification they are supposed to supplant, and ultimately what the long-term best option will always be: wires above trains.