Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the levels of emissions of greenhouse gases from freight locomotives; and if he will make a statement.

RSSB (Rail Safety and Standards Board) data from 2010 shows that CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from rail freight trains are 0.05g per tonne km which is less than 30% of the equivalent road figure. The CO (Carbon monoxide) figure is 0.032 g per tonne km which is less than 10% of the road figure.

At the Rail Freight Roundtable in March, I asked the Rail Delivery Group to develop the industry’s evidence base on this issue. They have created a freight air quality group, which has commissioned an air quality impact study for the sector, which will include greenhouse gases

Once the study is completed, the results will be made available.