Parliament’s Transport Committee have today published their ‘Trains Fit For the Future’ report, calling for the decarbonisation of the rail network.
David Clarke, Technical Director of the Railway Industry Association, said: “We very much welcome the Transport Committee’s report on decarbonising the rail network, including the call to start as soon as possible a thirty year programme of electrification and investment in hydrogen and battery trains.
“We need to get on with decarbonising our rail network today if we are to meet the Government’s target of Net Zero by 2050. That means starting a rolling programme of affordable electrification that avoids the ‘boom and bust’ profiles of the past, thereby allowing the rail industry to continue to retain and develop expertise and capabilities so that it can deliver efficiently and affordably. We also need to see fleet orders of battery and hydrogen trains, which the industry is now developed enough to deliver, so that we can decarbonise branch lines around the country, placing the UK at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution.
“We now urge the Government to work with the rail industry to begin the decarbonisation of passenger and freight rail today, ensuring we play a key role in the ‘build back better’ agenda and support the UK’s economic bounceback from Coronavirus.”
Photo credit: iStockphoto.com
