{"id":671028,"date":"2026-01-03T11:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671028\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T11:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:15:10","slug":"end-of-the-line-for-diesel-fumes-at-london-st-pancras-as-new-trains-arrive-rail-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671028\/","title":{"rendered":"End of the line for diesel fumes at London St Pancras as new trains arrive | Rail industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Railway fossil fuels once helped to turn King\u2019s Cross and St Pancras into a seamy, smoke-choked area of London<\/a>. Now, in the two grandly redeveloped stations with their swanky plazas, even a dropped paper ticket would look out of place.<\/p>\n

One last corner of St Pancras station is polluted by the fug of diesel trains \u2013 but not for much longer. East Midlands Railway, which runs services to cities including Derby and Sheffield, will fire up its diesel units in London for the final time by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

It is a milestone moment for St Pancras \u2013 albeit one that has arrived later and with more difficulty than many had hoped. EMR\u2019s fleet of cleaner Aurora trains, built by Hitachi, has arrived years behind schedule \u2013 and parallel engineering works to fully electrify the track they will run on, the Midland main line, have been scaled back.<\/p>\n

According to Will Rogers, the managing director of EMR, the Aurora trains \u201care going to make a step-change at St Pancras. It\u2019s very noticeable in terms of noise and emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fleet is by necessity bi-mode: running on electricity in the south before switching back to diesel farther north. Where the trains can run on electricity \u2013 up until just south of Leicester \u2013 the carbon emissions can be cut by 66%, Rogers says.<\/p>\n

On such environmental considerations, rail travel largely beats most other mechanised transport: consuming less energy for each passenger than cars, far superior to the plane in its carbon footprint, and \u2013 in many places \u2013 pumping out fewer noxious fumes.<\/p>\n

That comparative advantage does not make it completely green. About 70% of Great Britain\u2019s passenger train rolling stock is electric, and about 8% bi-mode; but only 39% of the entire route length of the railway is electrified \u2013 concentrated in the more populous south-east of England, where the majority of train journeys occur.<\/p>\n

According to the Rail Delivery Group\u2019s own emissions calculator, the vast majority of journeys \u2013 about 94% \u2013 are greener for each passenger by rail than by a petrol car (based on an average car occupancy of 1.6 people). But the equation tips where a battery-powered car meets a diesel train.<\/p>\n

Electrification of the railway has long been the lodestar for government and industry, but the cost and delivery of recent works has given policymakers pause. The Great Western main line electrification was eventually concluded in 2020, with key sections truncated<\/a>, having run years late and tripled the budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That kind of risk perhaps does not sit well with a government set on balancing the books \u2013 but many were still surprised and dismayed when the Midland main line electrification was halted south of Leicester last year.<\/p>\n

Rogers is diplomatic: \u201cThere\u2019s clearly difficult choices, but we\u2019d welcome any more electrification.\u201d The new EMR trains had a \u00a3400m price tag, \u201cand if you combine it with \u00a31.5bn on the main line electrification, it\u2019s a massive investment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Electrification work continues elsewhere, notably on the TransPennine route east of Manchester and almost completed on the South Wales Metro. But, for now, Leicester and Derby, the nominated home of Great British Railways<\/a>, will, like Bristol on Great Western, suffer the frustration of brand new main-line trains running on diesel in their city centres, having made it most of the way from London on electricity.<\/p>\n

An EMR diesel train at St Pancras station, London. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The dieselgate<\/a> scandal and London\u2019s Ulez<\/a> highlighted the health risk of diesel\u2019s nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from cars. But the immediate NOx exposure on the worst trains \u2013 for passengers as well as those waiting in stations, as research from the Rail Safety and Standards Board has shown<\/a> \u2013 could exceed that from air pollution on a busy road.<\/p>\n

In London, most main line stations have eliminated diesel; at Euston, Avanti\u2019s transition to fully electric completed a year ago, with a few bi-modes that switch to diesel at Crewe, 145 miles later, for tracks into north Wales. A handful of diesel trains run out of Waterloo for branch lines, and King\u2019s Cross, for the 10 daily services run by Grand Central, whose order for tri-mode hybrid trains will eventually mean its small fleet runs only on electricity in the capital.<\/p>\n

The big outlier is London Marylebone, unelectrified, and its lines out through the Chilterns sufficiently hemmed in by ageing infrastructure, bridges and tunnels to make full electrification prohibitively costly, if not impossible.<\/p>\n

A solution for Chiltern, seen in south Wales and with similar potential for Northern\u2019s network and the future East West Rail project linking Oxford and Cambridge, is a combined approach: selective track upgrades in accessible places allied to new train technology. Network Rail\u2019s route director, Denise Wetton, says: \u201cWe\u2019re looking at battery-hybrid trains and partial electrification all the way to Birmingham.\u201d<\/p>\n

The potential for fast-charge technology was demonstrated by a GWR test, which took a train on a world-record 200 miles on a single charge this summer. \u201cIt was a bit of fun,\u201d says Simon Green, GWR\u2019s engineering director, \u201cbut it also underlined a serious point: investment in battery technology is essential as we look to replace our ageing diesel fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overhead lines are best, he says, but batteries could now bridge the gaps where the wires prove too hard or costly to install. For GWR trains, running out to the far south-west of England and Wales, those stretches could mean about 60 miles between charges. The test was, Green says, \u201cclear evidence that this is a viable and exciting solution for the future of our railway\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chiltern\u2019s MD, Richard Allan, says he thinks there will be a \u201ccompelling case\u201d for the better technology. For now, the line will be introducing a new fleet of more efficient diesels, and also mitigating the train\u2019s emissions by using increasing proportions of hydrotreated vegetable oil \u2013 or recycled chip fat \u2013 from 7% to 20% of the fuel used.<\/p>\n

As EMR shows, new or better trains can take many years to order, build, test and bring into service. But it may still upgrade rail travel faster than some solutions, as commuters in the Chilterns can testify. Looking out from a new Chiltern train to High Wycombe at the scars of ongoing high-speed rail construction, Allan remarks: \u201cThey\u2019ve had to watch HS2 being built \u2013 now they have some benefit locally too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Department for Transport<\/a> is working with Network Rail to develop an updated electrification plan \u2013 as well as a new rolling stock strategy. The past ambition to clear all diesels from the railway by 2040 is under review.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said: \u201cWe are committed to electrifying and decarbonising our railway, and our approach will focus on the most cost-effective schemes that make the greatest difference as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The better trains on their way<\/p>\n

East Midlands Railway<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u00a3490m new fleet of Hitachi-built Aurora trains has arrived three years late \u2013 but passengers on the intercity route linking Derby, Leicester, Sheffield and Nottingham to the capital will have more seats and space, as well as a smoother, quieter ride. Wheelchair users will ride in first class. And special, German-made glass promises to allow mobile phones and data to reach into the carriages, improving notoriously patchy connectivity.<\/p>\n

Chiltern Railway<\/strong><\/p>\n

The new fleet of 13 Mark V trains, handed over nearly new from TransPennine Express, may not be electric but are certainly less shabby than some of the 50-year-old trains they are replacing. They will bring an extra 10,000 seats a week, as well as the kind of things familiar to other passengers for years: wifi, air-conditioning and accessible toilets.<\/p>\n

Piccadilly Line<\/strong><\/p>\n

Already electrified, but the Tube line\u2019s new fleet, which is made of lighter material and is more energy efficient, should consume 20% less electricity in service, according to Transport for London. Most passengers will be more excited about the greater headroom, air conditioning and walk-through carriages. The trains are expected to come into service between late summer and December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Railway fossil fuels once helped to turn King\u2019s Cross and St Pancras into a seamy, smoke-choked area of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-671028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115830883876112340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}