6•TheRailway Magazine•August
ByNickPigottBRITAIN’S heritagerailwaysare
fightingfortheir futureint he
faceofaGovernmentcrackdown
on carbon emissions.
So serious is the threatthat
politicians from both sides of
the Parliamentarydivide joined
forc es in Julyto call forsteam
lines to be spared the most
extreme aspects of newcoal-
burning laws.
Preservationists arealso
viewing withgrowing concern
the escalation of actionby
climate-change protestors and
wondering howlongitwill be
beforeapreservedrailway is
targeted.
Campaigngroups have already
invaded an opencastcoal mine in
Germanyand glued themselves
to atrain –ironically an electric on
London’s Docklands LightRailway
–and their demonstrations
arebecoming increasingly
widespread and militant.
To combatthe threats,the
HeritageRailway Association
has gone on the frontfoot in
abid to protectits members’
interests.The HRAisworking
with the All-Party Parliamentary
Group on HeritageRail (APPG)to
emphasise the manyreasons why
steam locomotives should be
allowedtocontinue running and
it’s urging railwaystoi ncrease
their vigilanceinlightofp otential
trouble from protestors.
“Today’schildren maybe
denied theexperienceofasteam
train ride as an unintended
consequenceofGovernment
actionto tackle climate change,”
says the APPG’s NickyMorgan,
MP forLoughborough, whose
constituencyincludes the Great
Centra lRailway.
“Concerns (about carbon
emissions) have rightly ledto
movestor educethe burning of
fossil fuels,but the intention of
the Governmentwas notto stop
people enjoying theexperience
of seeing and riding behind
working steam locomotives.
“Weneed to find away to
enable heritagerailwaysto
continue steaming.Weintend
to pursue this withGovernment
departments and ministersover
the next fewmonths.”
In drafting itsreportSteaming
Ahead?, MsMorgan’s group drew
heavily on input from the HRA,
whose chiefexecutive, Steve
Oates, toldTheRailway Magazine:
“Wecan’t ignorethe factthat
steam engines burncoal,but the
amountused on heritage lines is
an infinitesimal 0.2% of the UK’s
annualtotal.
“Not only areour emissions
absolutely tinycompared with
those of cars,lorries,aircraf tand
industrybut they areheavily
outweighedby the many
benefits Britain’s steamrailways
bringto the nation’s economy
and wayofl ife.”
These he listed as:
■Theheritagerail sec tor’s
worthtothe economyisn ow
approaching halfabillion
poundsayear.
■It provides full-time
employmentfor 4,
people andwork for22,
volunteers.
■It attrac ts 13 million visitors a
year,the majorityofwhom go
forsteam.
■In several ruralregions,
heritagerailwaysare the
biggest employerint he area.
■They pr ovide education,
skills-training and
apprenticeshipsforyoung
people.
■They pr ovide afutureskills
baseforthe main line sector.
■They pr ovide socialcohesion
and encourage activelifes tyles
forolder people.
■They pr ovide‘green corridors’
in which floraand fauna are
protected.
■They helpkeep holidaymakers
in the UKrather than flying off
on polluting jets and spending
their money abroad.“All those benefits are
threatened by the unintended
consequences of environmental
legislation,”saysthe HRAchief.
“The potential unavailability
of coal represents perhaps
the biggest threattos team
sinceBritishRailways’
ModernisationPlan.”
He reve aled Britain’s 158
heritagerailwaysattrac tmore
visitors than the nation’s top
seven internationaltourists
attractionscombined–places
liketheTowerofL ondon,
Stonehenge andSt Paul’s
Cathedral.Their totalmileage of
562 isroughly the equivalentof
Londonto Mallai g, and with 460
stations they have as many as
NorthernRail.Tourism industry
“We’re abloomin’bigpartof
the countr y’stourism industry
and we needto shout about our
achievementsto get the message
out there,”hesays.
“Itclearlywasn’t the intention
of zero -emissions targetsto harm
suchalarge and thriving sector
and we believethe benefits
far outweigh the negatives –
even moresowhen the many
mitigation measureswe’re
making aretaken into account.”
These include tree-planting,
installation of solar panels,
improved training of firemen and
driversto minimise black smoke,
pre-heating of locoboilers with
awarming firethe daybefor e,
better boiler-lagging,enhanced
maintenancetechniques,
reduced train-lengths on off-
peak services,apossible‘green
levy’on train tickets,and the sale
of sustainablefood and other
products in station shops.
“We’ve tried burning alternative
fuels in fireboxessuch aswood,
biomass and evencoffee groundspellets,but they just don’t wo rk
so well,” explainedMr Oates.
“Wood,especially when
wet, can produceevenmore
particulatesand the spaceit
takes is muchgreaterthan coal.
Switchingto
oil-firing is not the answer either
as thatcan produceevenmore
black smoke, re quires special
storage facilities and hasarisk of
leakage.”
With regardtothe prospect
of climate-change protests,he
toldTheRM:“Being realistic,we
have to recogn ise anattack as a
possibility, andIacknowledge
it mightbedifficult in such a
situationto get across thecore“Itwould depend ofcourse
on howbig the protestwas. We
mightneed to co nsideranew set
of guidelines in view ofrecent
protests elsewhere.”Offsetting
Thecrisis in the heritage
movementhas come about
because theGovernment
has recently announced a
commitmenttonet zero carb on
emissionsby 2050, meaning
elimination or offsetting of all
greenhouse gases.
Domesticcoal andwood
burning in homes will be
restrictedby2022, coal-fired
electricitygeneration will endby
2025, and diesel-only trainscould
be phased outby 2040.
Departmentfor the
Environment(Defra) ministers
have indicateditisnot the
intention to preventthe burning
of coal in steam locos,traction
engines,steam launches or the
grates of historic homes,but the
APPG and HRApoint out there’s
nothingto guaranteethis yet,
and the cross-party group,which
includes members of the House
of Lords, is callingforDefra’s
pledgeto be written into future
legislation.
Thetwo groupsalso pointout
thatBritish coal supplies areonly
expectedtobeavailablefortwo
or threeyears until thecountr y’s
last opencast mines areclosed
down.
Afte rthat, importedcoal will
be moreexpensive,“threa tening
the viabilityoft he UK’s steam
railways”.
It will also be difficultfora
nationwidecoal distribution
network to be retainedforafew
small widespread users and that
would substantially increase
deliveryprices, which,given
the tightmargins steam lines
already operate under,couldcause someto close.Att he very
least,itw ould raise ticket prices,
whichcould have an impact on
passenger demand.
At the moment, Britain still
uses 12milliontonnes ofcoal a
year.Oft hat, the entireheritage
rail mo vement’scontribution
is amere26,000tonnes-a
minuscule 0.216%.
All but 2.5m of those 12m
tonnes areimportedtens
of thousands of miles from
Australia, America, Russia
and Colombia, the transport
of which causes emissions of
global-warming gases fiveto
seven timesgreaterthan moving
UK-minedcoal.
“It’spossibleto takeadoom
and gloom approachto the
futureofcoal,” adde dMrOates,
“but heritagerailwaysproduce
only averysmall amountofCO
and we have ways to further
reducethose emissions andto
offset those thatcan’t.
“Atthe end of the day, there’s
no pointinb eing anything other
than absolutely upfrontabout
it...yes,weburn fossil fuels but
it needsto be put into co ntext
and weighed against everything
else we’redoing.
“By working together,wecan
meet the challenge.”
■BRITISH scientists have
developedasteam-powered
trai nsystemthatproduceszero
carbon emissions.
Hampshire-based Steamology
uses a‘water-to-water’(W2W)
system thatruns onoxygen
and hydrogen to driveaturbine
which can be usedto charge
bat tery packs on boardtrains.
Theprojectwas visited on
July 22 by TransportMinister
Andrew Jones,who said:“It’sa
fantastic example of innovation
and we aredelightedtobe
supporting it withafinancial
grant.”Steamlines face double threat
in crackdownoncoal-burning
Heritagerailways faceworrying timesover the possible crackdown on the use ofcoal as partofthe
carbon emis sion reduction plan.‘WD’2-10-0 No.90775 getsaSheringhamto Holt train underwaypast
thegolf course on July 7.BARRYMARTINpointabout the tinyimpactofa
handful of locos emitting mainly
harmless steam, but our advice
to memberswould beto trea tit
as theywould if faced with any
other emergencysituation.
“Trains would have to be
brou ghttoahaltand passengers
would have to be movedto
places ofsafet y. Mass trespass
would probably be the biggest
problem, but therailwayshave
regulations in placefor such
eventualities.SteveOates: Chiefexecutive
of the HeritageRailway
Association.HeadlineNews