Green support for railway electrification
Alan Francis, the Green Party's spokesperson on transport, gives his support for more trainline electrification:
We very much welcome today's government announcement about electrification of the Great Western Mainline and one of the lines between Manchester and Liverpool. After two decades without any electrification, this is long overdue. Electric trains are faster and more reliable than diesels, consume less energy and so produce less CO2 emissions.
Now that the government has belatedly recognised the benefits of electric railways, we want to see more proposals for electrification of existing lines and proposals for re-opening former railway lines to give more communities the benefits of a clean green transport system. Priorities for lines to be re-opened should include: Uckfield-Lewes,
Oxford-Cambridge, Matlock-Buxton, Exeter-Plymouth (via Tavistock) and Ashington, Blyth & Tyne.
The Times notes today: "New electric trains will cut CO2 emissions per passenger by at least a fifth compared with the existing diesel fleet. The savings will be greater if the Government can deliver a fivefold increase in the proportion of electricity from renewable sources by 2020." We need electric trains, but electric trains powered by wind, tidal and solar, rather than trains powered by dirty coal, nuclear and gas.
The Conservatives, despite supposedly supporting carbon reduction, are critical of the cost of rail electrification. However at a cost of about £3m per mile it is less than one tenth of the cost of motorway widening which is costing up to £40m per mile. It is a much better investment to spend £3m per mile on rail electrifcation that will reduce CO2 emissions, than to spend £40m per mile on motorway widening that will increase CO2 emissions.
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