Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to support investment in sustainable freight locomotives.

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 continue to work closely alongside 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. Trials are currently 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.

In both the TDP and the William Shapps Plan for Rail we committed to introducing a rail freight growth target and to incentivising the early take up of low carbon traction to help operators have the confidence they need to invest in green technologies.