Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Paragraph: 58
As recommended by our predecessor Committee in 2018, the best way to deliver efficient and...
Conclusion
As recommended by our predecessor Committee in 2018, the best way to deliver efficient and cost-effective electrification is to establish a rolling programme of electrification over the next 30 years. A rolling programme of electrification should also support the delivery of the Government’s “green industrial revolution” and “levelling up” economic disparities between the regions. The task of decarbonisation belongs to successive governments, but this administration must take the first steps towards meeting the 2050 “net zero” target.
Paragraph Reference:
58
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government partially agrees with this recommendation. We agree that a visible pipeline and smooth delivery profile of electrification schemes will help to enable Network Rail (and subsequently Great British Railways) and the supply chain to deliver electrification more efficiently, and so we will endeavour to deliver that pipeline of schemes over the next 30 years. However, having learned the lessons from Network Rail’s Control Period 5 where we overcommitted to a number of electrification schemes before they had been sufficiently developed, we now have the RNEP process in place to ensure that future schemes can be properly developed before we commit to them. It is right that we both continue to develop schemes through the RNEP process, to ensure that future schemes are affordable and provide value for money, but also that we balance this with the need to give the rail industry the sufficient pipeline of projects, and the certainty, that it needs. We will seek to balance both of these needs in our future approach towards decarbonising the railway between now and 2050.