Mixed progress from government on decarbonisation recommendations

The Government has made good progress towards delivering just three of 12 recommendations made a year ago by a rail decarbonisation inquiry from the Transport Select Committee.

That’s the damning verdict of the Railway Industry Association, in its review into the implementation of recommendations made in March 2021 by the TSC’s Trains fit for the future? report, aimed at reducing dependence on diesel trains.

Twelve months on since the inquiry report’s publication,

RIA has found that only three recommendations have been broadly satisfied - including the publication of a hydrogen strategy and a transport decarbonisation strategy to provide more information on how hydrogenand battery-powered traction technology can be utilised on the network.

RIA says that good progress has also been made by committing to electrification on the Midland Main Line and through the TransPennine Route Upgrade, as set out by the Integrated Rail Plan last November.

However, a failure to publish a full electrification programme or details of other schemes, such as for rail freight, has been cited as one of four areas where only limited progress has been made.

Meanwhile, among the five areas where RIA has deemed there to have been no progress at all is a failure to secure funding for a long-term plan to decarbonise the railways, and to explore the potential for extension in third-rail electrification capability.

Finally, RIA’s review also once again calls on the Government to publish an update to the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline, given that it has not done so for almost 900 days.