Scotland's Railway "Climate Action Plan"

[snowball]

Don't get your hopes up from the thread title! This is not the long-awaited "refresh", originally due in spring 2023, of the 2020 traction decarbonisation plan, nor is it a rolling stock plan. We'll have to wait more months for those.

Network Rail and ScotRail have published a 5-year Climate Action Plan. Press release here:

Scotland’s Railway publishes five-year Climate Action Plan

Scotland’s Railway will significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across the network over the next five years.

www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk

Scotland’s Railway will significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions across the network over the next five years.

Network Rail and ScotRail, under the Scotland’s Railway partnership, published their Climate Action Plan for 2024-2029 this morning, to help tackle climate change.

It sets out five priority areas - climate ready, net zero, environmental management, biodiversity and social value – with the overall vision being to serve Scotland - now and in the future - with a greener, more resilient and responsible railway.

The plan tackles emissions from the road fleet, heating buildings and energy purchases, targeting a 65% reduction by 2029.

Five hundred hectares of land both within and outwith the railway boundary will be enhanced through strategic partnerships, with a target to increase biodiversity on railway land by 4%.

The document itself is here (47 pages, pointless to try to quote):

https://scotlandsrailway.com/assets/site/Climate-Action-Plan/Network-Rail-Scotland-Climate-Action-Plan-2024.pdf

It's a very waffly, bureaucratic, snooze-inducing document. Traction decarbonisation gets a few passing mentions but no detail. It seems to be mainly about (a) decarbonisation of non-traction activities and (b) climate readiness, such as avoiding another Carmont (though Carmont is not mentioned).

Appendix A is signed by Alex Hynes though his move to DfT was announced over 4 months ago.

Action 1.1 on page 33 gives a new deadline of March 2025 for publication of a rolling stock strategy.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

The document itself is here (47 pages, pointless to try to quote):

https://scotlandsrailway.com/assets/site/Climate-Action-Plan/Network-Rail-Scotland-Climate-Action-Plan-2024.pdf

It's a very waffly, bureaucratic, snooze-inducing document.

Thanks. I have downloaded it anyway and It will make some light bedtime reading after my wife returns to the UK.

 

[Chris Hamilton]

Can’t wait to be given an electric van for fault response on my 70 mile long section of main line. Especially when t’other day I had done 200 miles before lunch because of the need to collect spare parts from the home depot.

Don’t get me wrong, I own an electric car. In fact, two of them when you include the wife’s. I love my electric car. But I also know it’s 220 mile quoted range is a fairy tale, and in the winter is a bigger work of fiction than Harry Potter.

For anyone who thinks “they won’t do that, they’ll arrange it on a depot by depot basis”, they once gave us a 50mph limited Transit, when most of my railway parallels a motorway.

 

[SC318250]

So I take it that it will be at least 2029 at earliest before Class 318/320 will be replaced now?
Unless it isnt new units