Moving Wheels
THE 2040 target to remove all diesel-only trains from the network is wholly unrealistic, according to Porterbrook CEO Mary Grant.
Then Rail Minister Jo Johnson set the target in a speech in early 2018, stating the ambition matched the Government’s target at the time to end sales of petrol and diesel cars by the same date. The challenge prompted the industry to set up the Rail Decarbonisation Taskforce, which reported the following year and suggested the target was achievable. This in turn prompted Network Rail’s Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS), which was published last year and set out which stretches of the network should be electrified or served by battery or hydrogen trains.
‘As commendable as that target is, I think it’s wholly unrealistic’ Ms Grant told delegates at the Railway Industry Association’s Innovation Conference on 30 April. Speaking at a panel discussion on decarbonisation, Ms Grant pointed out that a rolling programme of electrification had yet to be authorised and that battery and hydrogen trains could not match the capabilities of existing diesel fleets. ‘Quite frankly nobody else is going to be making new diesel trains, so in absence of that alternati…
