Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage freight and passenger operators of diesel powered trains and rolling stock to switch to drop-in HVO green diesel.

Our Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) set out our ambition to remove all diesel-only trains (passenger and freight) from the network by 2040. We will work closely with operators and manufacturers on deploying the most appropriate traction technology, this includes looking at alternate fuels including renewable hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO), hydrogen, battery or bi-mode and hybrid traction technology.

In our TDP we have also committed to introducing a rail freight growth target - which should not become a ceiling - as well as incentivising the early take up of low carbon traction for rail freight. Separately, trials are being undertaken by freight operators to assess the use of renewable HVO as a short-term replacement for traditional diesel used in the interim during transition to zero emission alternatives.