The Electric Railway Charter
The Electric Railway Charter is a campaigning initiative of four rail user groups along the Calder Valley Line spanning the Pennines, supported by regional branches of Railfuture. A copy of the Charter is attached. Our aims link business and environmental objectives. We seek a sustainable railway as an attractive alternative to congested roads, economic to operate, dramatically reducing carbon dioxide emissions and improving air quality compared with diesel traction. Better for passengers (and freight customers), better for the planet, and (without doubt) better business for the railway and its users. We are not opposed to “gapped” electrification where the gaps can be filled by trains with onboard energy storage – but the idea of diesel bi-mode trains potentially commits the railway to damaging fossil-fuel based traction for another generation.
Already we have had the support of local authorities, MP's and many people within the rail industry, community rail and rail campaigning world.
We simply cannot wait for “our place” in the queue for High Speed Rail lines which, optimistically, will not come to the Calder Valley for at least two decades! In any case, most rail journeys are short and made locally.
We want to engage a wide range of environmental, workplace, business and political (all party!) groups in support of the Charter, which is a call for a renewed programme of railway electrification across the North of England.
We very much hope you will support the campaign for electrification and sign up for the Electric Railway Charter