It’s Better Transport Week – a week-long celebration of sustainable transport.
Our railway helps millions of people every day get to education, training and work, and to see friends and family, and new places.
It also helps freight operators move everything from cars to the essential items you see on supermarket shelves.
Here are just some of the ways our work helps support you, the environment and the economy …
A greener world
Rail is one of the greenest ways to travel. For example, a 2021 Department for Transport report estimated a petrol car journey from London to Glasgow emitted more than three times more CO2 per passenger than the equivalent rail journey.
But we’re not stopping there. We’ve committed to cutting our carbon emissions to net-zero. We’re aiming to do this by 2045 in Scotland and by 2050 in the rest of Britain. This will result in a cleaner, greener and far more sustainable railway for you.
Economy
Across Britain, investment in the railway drives jobs, economic growth, development and regeneration. It does this by:
- opening up new areas for businesses to grow
- cutting travel times
- bringing more jobs within reach
- opening up new journeys.
The Great North Rail Project and The East West Rail scheme are two of our of recent projects aimed at doing this. They will significantly boost the UK’s regional and national economy through improved rail links across regions of Britain.
Communities
We’ve also been busy building new railway stations that will help strengthen local economies. Some of our work includes:
- building Leven station in Fife, Scotland – this station will reconnect the local community to the rail network for the first time in more than 50 years
- seven new stations in Bristol – these are part of the MetroWest programme, which aims to give 80,000 more people access to train services
- Maghull North, a new Merseyside station that opened to passengers in 2018
- the opening of Cambridge North station in Cambridgeshire in 2017.
National life
We’re very proud to play our part in helping Britain during momentous historical events.
The railway helped transport thousands of members of the armed forces from all over the UK to London to take part in the Coronation of His Majesty The King in May.
We also helped tens of thousands of fans travel to Liverpool safely by train to celebrate Eurovision Song Contest 2023, greeting them with festivities and decorations at Liverpool Lime Street.
