News Front
RAIL ELECTRIFICATION is recommended in the sixth carbon budget report produced by the Climate Change Committee, but the report is not as ambitious as Network Rail’s Transport Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS).
The CCC is an independent, statutory body, and its production of the carbon budget is required under the Climate Change Act to advise ministers on the volume of greenhouse gases the UK can emit during the period 2033-37. The CCC produced a series of documents, including a methodology report and a policy report.
Rather than highlighting the recommendations of the TDNS for electrifying at least 11,700 further single track kilometres (p12, October issue), the committee calls instead on the report of the Rail Industry Decarbonisation Taskforce, published in 2019. This is less ambitious as regards electrification, and the CCC’s ‘balanced pathway’ scenario assumes almost half of the network is electrified by 2035, with a mix of hydrogen, battery-electric and electric hybrid trains replacing existing diesel trains where it is not; it is further assumed diesel engines would be 18% more efficient than they are today. Several key freight corridors would also be electrified. These measures…
