Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the report by the Railway Industry Association entitled Why rail electrification?, published on 22 April 2021; whether he has plans to utilise hydrogen powered trains in addition to electric traction in the future; and if he will make a statement.

I welcome this report and agree that further electrification will be required to decarbonise the railway to support our target of reaching Net Zero emissions across the entire UK economy by 2050. As part of the decarbonisation process, the government also supports the deployment of hydrogen and battery trains on some lines where they make operational and economic sense. The department’s forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan will set out the government’s ambition for the scale and pace for rail decarbonisation between now and 2050.