Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes in the level of rail use on the environment.

Rail is a green mode of transport and can contribute to transport decarbonisation by moving goods and people from more polluting modes. In 2021, greenhouse gas emissions from rail (passenger and freight) made up just 1.4% of the UK's domestic transport emissions, while 7.4% of passenger miles travelled in Great Britain were by rail. Both historic and forecasted future passenger demand is taken into account when developing policies and evaluating the carbon emissions from rail.