THE increased use of rail services had led to “a significant reduction” in carbon emissions relative to the number of passengers and amount of freight carried by train.

This is reported by the Office of Rail Regulation in its latest National Rail Review, covering April-June, 2008.

“Taking into account the increased use of rail services the industry achieved significant reductions in carbon emissions per passenger kilometre and per net freight tonne kilometre; these fell by 5.8 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively,” says the National Rail Review.

The ORR says that the British rail industry’s total energy consumption fell in 2006/7 compared with the previous year.

It adds that in 2006/7 there were reductions in rail’s total electricity and diesel fuel consumption — by 2.7 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

“But because of the high price of gas during 2006/7 the electricity industry switched its fuel supply to make greater use of coal, a more carbon-intensive
source,” sates ORR. “As a result the CO 2 emissions involved in providing electricity for rail increased.

“Had the carbon intensity of electricity generation remained constant, CO2 emissions from traction electricity would actually have fallen by 40,000 tonnes (2.7%).”

ORR adds: “In future carbon emissions from rail may need to increase as demand continues to grow, but where this is a result of modal shift from more carbon-intensive modes the overall environmental effect should be positive.

 “The industry is working hard to develop and implement strategies to improve its future energy/carbon efficiency still further. We fully support this work and will continue to contribute where we can.

“Publication of the key performance indicators measuring traction energy consumption and associated carbon emissions for the railway in ORR’s National Rail Trends is a positive step in encouraging the industry to measure its energy consumption rigorously, and to drive initiatives to reduce carbon emissions.”