Mr. Peter Strachan:

Yes, provided it is the right type of rail, by which I mean sustainably delivered rail. As a transport professional, I always get excited about people making the comparison between the carbon take of transport and the carbon take of public transport because, as we know, the carbon take of transport, given emissions from road vehicles and particularly private cars, is an enormous challenge for every country and this one is no different. From a narrow point of view, it is much better to get people out of their cars, even into a diesel-powered bus or train, because that is better in overall terms. However, that only goes partway to solving the climate problem.

Therefore, what we need to do, and are doing, as transport providers, is look at battery operation, electrification of fleets and innovative ways of providing dual-power or tri-power modes between battery, diesel-restricted and overhead electrification. That is where rail really starts to play its part. We can see that coming in across different parts of Europe in particular, where the opportunities are being taken not to go wholesale for overhead electrification, as we might have done 20 years ago, but to say the gap can be filled with a battery tri-mode vehicle as opposed to just going with wires, wires and more wires, which is prohibitively expensive. Therefore, with the value and the benefit realisation, we get that extra dimension of carbon reduction from rail that we possibly did not value before.