Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2020 to Question 7619 on Railways: Carbon Emissions, what the (a) terms of reference are for the Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy and (b) what criteria Network Rail will use to identify projects for inclusion within that strategy.

The remit of the Network Rail-led industry Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy (TDNS) is to provide decarbonisation options for the Department and other funders by examining the suitability of different traction options for each part of the rail network, and the cost and timing of their possible deployment.

Analysis conducted for TDNS will inform Government decisions about the scale and pace of rail decarbonisation between now and 2050 as part of our Transport Decarbonisation Plan. Individual schemes will be developed through the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline to deliver an affordable and deliverable programme of decarbonisation.