Britain’s Railways

Baroness Altmann Excerpts

Monday 24th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

My Lords, shortly is shortly. I, too, am optimistic about the railways and all forms of transport because they are the great connector. The noble Lord asks about branding. Branding is important because having a coherent, consistent and clearly branded rail network gives passengers greater confidence in using it. Great British Railways will use an updated version of the classic double arrow logo. We also have an updated version of the font, which I think will be widely recognised across the system. However, variants of the national brand will be developed to reflect the English regions and Scotland and Wales, while emphasising that the railway is one network serving the whole of Great Britain. It may well be that, as the noble Lord suggests, there will be slight variants depending on which part of the country the train operates in.

[Baroness Altmann (Con) [V]]

My Lords, are there any plans for environmental targets for Great British Railways, such as carbon emission reductions or progress towards net zero, and incentives for them?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

The Government are committed to decarbonising the railway as part of our wider, legally binding target of reaching net zero emissions across the whole UK economy by 2050. Our forthcoming transport decarbonisation plan will set out the scale and pace of rail decarbonisation that is necessary for us to achieve that. The rail network enhancements pipeline—the RNEP—will be updated soon, and in that we will have various schemes which will lead to decarbonisation. Indeed, we are working very closely on research to look at how we can also decarbonise the vehicles themselves; for example, by looking at hydrogen trains. The new industry structure, including Great British Railways, will ensure a more co-ordinated approach to delivering our carbon emissions commitments.