Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of diesel rolling stock on the environment.

Rail is a comparatively green mode of transport, but the Government is working to further reduce emissions and reduce the impact of air and noise pollution.

Diesel freight and passenger trains in Great Britain created 1,788 kilotonnes of CO₂e last year (April 2019-April 2020). The Government will reduce these emissions through our ambition to phase out diesel-only trains by 2040 and deliver a net-zero transport system by 2050.

The Department is working to gain a more comprehensive understanding of air pollution in stations by funding a new £4.5 million air quality monitoring network. This will be rolled out over the next three years, with air quality monitors installed in around 100 stations across England and Wales from summer 2021. Once established, the network will help to identify priority locations where air quality improvement measures are most needed.

Noise from the railway can have an impact on the lives of the people who live along its routes, and the industry is working to minimise the impact of noise from the railway on its neighbours and on passengers. The Department supports periodic strategic noise mapping to identify the most sensitive areas on and around the rail network that are exposed to railway noise. We assess the sensitive areas as described in the Noise Action Plan: Railways - this plan is updated every 5 years and was last updated in 2019.