Me and West Midlands Mayor Andy Street have visited the Chiltern Railways depot in the town to look at one of the company’s vegetable oil powered trains.
We met managing director of Chiltern Railways Richard Allen and Managing Director (central area) of Network Rail Denise Wetton to look at the converted diesel locomotive on its way to Birmingham to run brake checks.
We heard the engine now runs on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) - a move that will reduce carbon emissions by 90% compared to conventional diesel trains.
The engine was easy to switch from the fossil fuel. The new fuel is 100% recycled from a variety of places such as surplus oil in the food chain process.
It was fantastic to see how Chiltern is doing its bit for the environment with new fuel for its trains that has been recycled from the food industry.
These sorts of innovations are important for our net zero ambitions and for cleaner air along our rail network in the West Midlands.
I commend the company for what it is doing and how it is exploring how to expand its fleet of HVO fuelled trains.
