Scotland’s Railway has launched a new campaign to encourage more people to choose greener trains over congestion on the roads.
Ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) – which runs 31 October -12 November 2021 – ScotRail has added a specially designed logo to its fleet of electric trains to promote rail as the most environmentally friendly way to travel.
The ‘Your ticket to zero carbon travel’ vinyl has been added to the train operator’s Class 385, 318, 320, 334 and 380 fleet, which are all electric trains.
The trains are the latest demonstration of Scotland’s Railway’s ambition of reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2035.
Between 2014 and 2019, Scotland’s Railway electrified 325km of the country’s central railway network. This investment supported the introduction of a new £370million fleet of 70 faster, greener, modern electric Hitachi Class 385 trains.
These trains are cutting carbon emissions by over 10,000 tonnes a year, which is the equivalent of taking 2,238 cars off the road every year, or planting 5,138,151 trees across the fleet’s expected 30 year lifetime.
More than 76 per cent of passenger and 45 per cent of freight journeys are already electrified on Scotland’s Railway, and rail is already the most sustainable mode of public transport, contributing only one per cent of Scotland’s overall transport carbon emissions.
Damian Keaveny, ScotRail Head of Environment, said:
“In recent years, rail travel in Scotland has been more popular than ever before with more than 107 million passenger journeys made in 2019.
“However, the pandemic has changed how people travel, and as COP26 gets closer, we’re committed to helping make the transition from road to rail easier by providing people with a ticket to zero carbon travel.
“Rail is already the cleanest and greenest mode of transport, but we know there’s work to do if we want to achieve the target of reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2035.
“That’s why, over the next 15 years, we are pushing ahead with major investment to make Scotland’s Railway net zero carbon a reality.”