The Transport Committee says the Government must increase the pace of electrification set out in Network Rail’s Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy. The recommendation is made in its report Fuelling the future: motive power and connectivity, published on 2 March.
Announcing the report, Committee Chair Iain Stewart said: ‘We strongly urge the Government to crack on with projects for electrifying train lines throughout the UK, or identify alternative lower-carbon motive power solutions where full electrification is not economically viable.’
In an evidence session on Great British Railways, Network Rail Chief Executive Andrew Haines told the Committee that ‘everyone recognises that to get to 2040 we would have to ramp up from where we currently are’. But the report argues there are projects such as East West Rail ‘appear to run counter to this plan to “ramp up” electrification. EWR will be diesel-operated initially, with no confirmed plan to electrify the whole route.
Rail freight presents a ‘particular challenge’ for decarbonisation, with the UK Petroleum Industries Association telling the committee that it believes the sector may pose the biggest challenge to the Government’s rail decarbonisation aims.
Rail Freight Gro…
