Electrification of lines is key to a low-carbon system. Yet project after project has been scrapped
- Aneurin Redman-White is a railway employee and TSSA rep
Working on the railway, we see our industry as part of the solution to the climate emergency, as it provides one of the most efficient, low-carbon forms of transport. Right now in the UK, you can reduce the CO2 output from a journey by roughly 70% by switching from car to train. On an electric train, you can save 90%. That’s pretty good, especially with road haulage struggling – and petrol prices spiking.
I started my railway career as a teenager volunteering on the Mid-Hants steam railway and I’ve been a full-time railway employee for five years. I now work in a consultancy where we design everything from re-signalling schemes down to the connections in a control box. It’s a long way from my childhood playing trains on the kitchen table. Each major project needs dozens of engineers, project managers and trackside workers, most of them skilled specialists, and each project takes years of planning and the application of sustained political will.
Aneurin Redman-White is a railway employee and Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) rep
