A greener electric road fleet

A greener electric road fleet

Published 11 February 2025 | Average read time
3 min read
Stories Industry-leading
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We鈥檙e gradually changing our national fleet of 9,700 cars and vans to zero-emission electric vehicles.

It鈥檚 part of our commitment to running a greener and more sustainable railway.

Greener and more efficient

We expect to lower our carbon emissions by about 47,000 tonnes each year once our road fleet is fully electric. It will lead to cleaner air for you and a more sustainable railway for everyone.

It鈥檚 also an important part of our work to become a net-zero carbon emissions railway by 2050.

James Rooney, head of road fleet at 51爆料, said: 鈥淲hile rail is one of the greenest ways to travel, we need to match that in the way we work.

鈥淏y making our vehicles more environmentally friendly, we鈥檙e supporting our sustainability targets and moving towards a better, greener future.鈥

We also hope an electric road fleet will be cost effective to run and maintain 鈥 helping us become a more efficient and do more with the savings we make.

Transforming our fleet

This work started in 2022 and by January 2023, we鈥檇 installed the first electric vehicle chargers at some of our work sites, and began trialling the first electric vehicles.

Following its success, we鈥檝e been gradually rolling this programme our across our regions. So far, we鈥檝e switched 280 vehicles in our road fleet to electric. And we plan to continue making this switch until we have a fully electric road fleet.

Charging points

Part of this work involves making sure our staff can charge the electric vehicles seamlessly without worrying about running out of charge. And we鈥檙e exploring different ways to do this.

We鈥檝e installed 269 electric vehicle charging points across 45 of our sites across Britain. We鈥檙e also looking into other suitable sites on our railway to install more charging points. Plus, we鈥檝e given charging cards to drivers to access public chargers across the country.

A small number of colleagues are also taking part in a home charging trial. Charging points were installed at their home address so they could charge the vehicles there. This may help give our staff additional flexibility and reduce our reliance on public charging points and charging at our work sites.

Switching thousands of our road vehicles to electric is complex job that we鈥檙e doing gradually. It may take years, but our step-by-step approach ensures we鈥檙e doing it right. We want to make sure the electric vehicles we鈥檙e switching our fleet to are fully suitable for the vehicles they are replacing. So we can continue using our road fleet to give you a better railway.

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