We need a truly sustainable alternative to HS2 - reply
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2011-09-30 13:57.Why is it not sustainable if current government policy is to de carbonise the national grid? These trains run on electricity, and we are already seeing investment in sustainable electric power. Yesterday the ORR/Network Rail published a report into investment plans for 2014 - 2019 ( known as Control Period 5 ). They made a big noise about the issue of electrical power for trains and how it is generated. The report pointed out that it is expected that deliveries of coal to power stations by rail will slowly fall away, and be replaced by BIOMASS. I would also point out that power for HS2 is likely to come from , amongst other things , a waste to power facility in Calvert , Buckinghamshire. The future design spec of trains will make full use of the advances in efficiency , and indeed the latest model of Japanese Bullet train uses less power on a per seat basis than our current Pendolino trains. As an aside to this, pendolino trains have been retrofitted with electric meters .....add in the fact that trains drivers themselves are increasingly trained in defensive driving techniques, and you can see that the industry as a whole already has sustainabilty at the forefront of day to day operations.