Posted 14th December 2021 | 2 Comments

Reports claim rail decarbonisation plans are at risk

Reports claim rail decarbonisation plans are at risk

It is being reported that the Treasury has refused to fund Network Rail’s Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy. An interim business case was published in July last year, and it involves more electrification as well as the use of battery and hydrogen trains to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. However, the unconfirmed reports say the Treasury has refused to fund the £30 billion plan on the grounds that the 'cost cannot be justified' after the pandemic depressed passenger figures. There have been no responses so far from official sources.

Reader Comments:

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  • John Gilbert, Cradley

    It is no accident that the UK has only a miserable 38% of its rail network electrified. Always, always it has been our miserable politicians who have stopped or delayed or emasculated the size of schemes. They will grab at ANY excuse to ruin proposals, And here we have Global catastrophe staring us in the face and they are still up to their old game.....pour cold water on schemes or simply cancel them. There really must be something that happens to the mindset of our politicians when they go through the doors of Parliament. The Labour Party for example, between 1997 and 2010 electrified just 8km of line so it doesn't matter which party is in Government, they're all the miserable same. And in those years the country was in a period of relative prosperity!!! No difference to electrifying our railways though - almost none allowed. Quite crazy. ......

  • strawbrick, Watford

    Two thoughts:

    1: "The Treasury has refused to fund the £30 billion (rail decarbonisation) plan on the grounds that the 'cost cannot be justified' after the pandemic depressed passenger figures." Meanwhile, HS2 continues despite the fact that the pandemic has depressed passenger figures.

    2: Clearly the added income from the increase of freight on rail does not count in the justification of the costs.