Recommendation 15

HM Government · verbatim extract Accepted in Part

The Government partially agrees with this recommendation. 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. The Department works closely with Network Rail’s regions to develop enhancement schemes, including electrification schemes. The status of each scheme can be seen in RNEP updates as they are published. The RNEP will be republished with updates as soon as is possible. Different projects are at different stages in the RNEP process, with some projects at a very early stage of pre-RNEP development. When referring to a list of “no regret” electrification schemes to this Committee, Andrew Haines was referring to interim TDNS analysis that was requested by the Department in the first part of 2020, to give some early insight into some of the most likely TDNS recommendations on electrification, to support policy development in this area. That interim analysis, which is attached as an annex, included a list of unelectrified lines where, based on Network Rail’s own view, and the current state of available rail decarbonisation technologies, electrification would likely be the most appropriate decarbonisation option. This interim TDNS analysis, which has helped to inform the schemes in RNEP, has since been superseded by the TDNS Interim Programme Business Case, which was published by Network Rail in September 2020. Recommendation 7: The Department must make the case within Government to ensure that hydrogen trains are fully incorporated within the forthcoming national Hydrogen Strategy. This will help ensure the roll out of this new technology is properly co-ordinated and supported by appropriate infrastructure.