Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of emissions at train stations.

The department recognises that poor air quality is a major public health issue.

We are funding ongoing research conducted by the Rail and Safety Standards Board (RSSB) into the effect of the rail industry on air quality. This includes recent research at King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverly.

The Department has set out its aspiration to remove all diesel-only trains from the rail network by 2040. Moving the rail industry away from diesel will both reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality. Progress is already being made, with absolute carbon emissions from passenger services in 2017-18 6.6 per cent lower than in 2016-17.