East Yorkshire must embrace opportunity to ditch diesel trains - Dame Diana Johnson & Emma Hardy
In September TransPennine Express announced £1bn of investment in a new fleet of 29 battery-electric trains, to enter service in 2034 for Northern England - including Hull. This was a breakthrough in the long cross-party campaign by Humber MPs, local authorities and the business community to secure rail electrification for Hull.
Now we are asking First Hull Trains and Northern, the other rail operators serving East Yorkshire, to help us finish the job on rail electrification by announcing as soon as possible that their new fleets will also be battery-electric.
TransPennine Express grasped the opportunity offered by advances in battery-electric bi-modal technology to extend the full benefits of the Government’s recent Northern Powerhouse Rail announcement to the whole of Northern England.
In November 2016, the then Government blocked the privately-financed scheme to achieve a continuous cable-based rail electrification for Hull. Nearly ten years on, and after electrification of rail routes to Hull was in the 2024 Hull and East Yorkshire Devolution Deal, the vision of an electrified rail network, stretching coast-to-coast from the Humber to the Mersey, is now within reach.
The latest battery-electric technology radically reduces the upfront capital costs of electrification, compared to continuous overhead cables. Installing the required charging infrastructure in Hull and at key points across the North would allow battery-electric trains from all operators to bridge the gaps between stretches of the network that will have overhead cables.
Ditching diesel is also about national security – ending exposure to global fossil fuel price shocks. The much-reduced outlay on infrastructure would be followed by cutting running costs by up to half, hopefully taking pressure off ticket prices.
Given that continuous overhead cables are notoriously prone to storm damage, battery-electric traction would also mean a rail network less prone to disruption.
Above all, battery-electric bi-modal trains for all the North would realise the full benefits of faster speeds, typically saving around 10 per cent on route journey times. This was always the main point of our campaign for rail electrification. Faster trains would increase network capacity, creating scope for new timetable services. Pressure on track access that has been a particular concern for open access rail operators would ease.
The choices made in ordering new train fleets for the 2030s and beyond must also mark another step towards a cleaner public transport network – cutting carbon emissions and improving air quality.
We are particularly concerned about the continued operation of diesel-powered trains at Hull Paragon Station. As a largely enclosed space, the constant presence of diesel exhaust emissions affects air quality for station users.
New train fleets potentially operate for decades. For that reason, we need decisions now that the use of diesel will end - not continue for years more, as would potentially happen with tri-mode or ‘last mile’ battery-diesel trains.
The advances in connectivity and public health that full electrification would bring for our constituents, to rail operators in lower financing and running costs and to the North in economic productivity and growth makes the case for doing so unanswerable.
Dame Diana Johnson is MP for Hull North and Cottingham. Emma Hardy is MP for Hull West and Haltemprice.