Trains stop in Great Britain due to energy crisis – Rossiyskaya Gazeta

by time news

Freightliner, the UK-based freight operator, has removed electric tractors from the rails and replaced them with diesel locomotives amid rising electricity prices in September and October by more than 200%. This was reported by the East Anglian Daily Times.

The company’s electric trains typically run between the seaport of Filixstowe and northwest England, including the North Line of the London Underground. Partially the route is not electrified, so diesel locomotives go there instead of electric trains, but now Freightliner brings them to the entire route.

The company called the rise in electricity prices unprecedented. The decision to mothball electric freight trains is temporary; it does not apply to passenger transportation. “Rail transport remains the most economical way of transporting goods in the UK, even when using diesel locomotives, since each ton of cargo delivered by rail, rather than by truck, reduces carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 76%,” the company concluded.

Local authorities have already dubbed the incident “the failure of the state energy policy” and called for an emphasis on the development of wind energy in coastal zones so as not to return to diesel locomotives.

Operator Freightliner owns the UK’s largest fleet of freight locomotives and recently bought 13 more electric tractors to decarbonize the business. At the same time, the return to diesel locomotives was announced three weeks before the climate conference, which will go to Glasgow. Interlocutors of the International Railway Journal in the industry reacted to the operator’s decision ambiguously, noting that replacing electric locomotives with diesel locomotives could increase the delivery time of goods, as well as affect the passenger schedule.

Electricity prices are rising throughout Europe with the arrival of autumn for several reasons – insufficient gas supply, lack of wind to generate electricity from wind generators, as well as a general rise in the cost of resources against the background of high demand.

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