Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the proportion of freight trains powered by renewable energy sources.

While rail freight is already a comparatively green mode of moving goods, we have been working alongside the rail industry to make it even greener.

In the last three years (for which data is available), we have completed almost 700 miles of electrification in England and Wales. As we deliver more electrification schemes in an efficient and affordable way, this will increase the opportunity for freight operating companies to use more electric and bi-mode locomotives, therefore using more renewable energy from the grid and from Network Rail’s renewable power purchase agreements.

Since 2019, the Department has contributed just under £750,000 to fund two First of a Kind projects that focus on the potential use of renewable new traction technologies (battery and hydrogen) to power freight trains, and over £2.5m to fund a project to enable renewable power sources to feed-in directly into the rail network. The Department also funds an ongoing programme of research, led by the Rail Safety and Standards Board, that includes reducing carbon and air quality emissions from rail freight.

We will be setting out further plans to support the decarbonisation of rail freight, and reduce the use of diesel, in the forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP).