UK Rail and Trains

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Mex

Network Rail electricity bill more than doubled in two years | New Civil Engineer (www.newcivilengineer.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Mex to c/rail

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[–] HumanPenguin 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This needs a comparison to the diesel bill.

While, electricity is going up in general. The UK rail lines are running diesel-electric trains that can run from electric lines when available. Over the last 10 years, a huge move to increase the electric lines within the UK has happened. Much of it completed recently.

Also add to this, the new government is planning to move those diesel-electric over to battery trains that can charge plus run on the electrified lines. Then use battery on the non-electrified sections.

So a significant % of the cost increase will be intentional and the result of reduced diesel use.

[–] Mex 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah I did think not mentioning other fuels in use was a bit of an oversight

[–] HumanPenguin 4 points 1 week ago

Yeah, the cost of electricity is a clear issue. But then so is diesel and LPG for the same reasons exactly.

We can and are making our own electricity, This is just an argument to invest more and pull digits out.

If we updated the grid and started running buses the same way (charging motorways and a road with batteries), we could be a large step towards reducing fossil fuel.

There was an article some time recently about an EU nation building a charging motorway.