GO GREEN, GO BROKE?

One of Britain's train operating companies is reverting to diesels.

Freightliner has confirmed that it will be withdrawing its entire fleet of electric locomotives in response to soaring electricity prices.

The company, which is the largest UK freight operator of electric locomotives, says it has been forced to replace its 23 Class 90s with diesel traction following a steep rise in wholesale electricity prices of more than 200% between September and October.

Although such a move has caused dismay in terms of its environmental implications, FL argues that the alternative would have been to pass on the enormous price rises to its customers.

This would have injected further costs into a supply chain that is already under increased pressure to keep shelves stocked in the run-up to Christmas, and which is suffering from a chronic shortage of [commercial truck] drivers.

There's conservation. Then there's deprivation. Apparently, there's not enough wind power; the British Isles have no Cascade Range to provide white coal, and the nuclear generating stations are mothballed.

In addition, never underestimate the power of the administrative state to mess things up.

According to senior industry sources, the issue is unlikely to be confined to Freightliner, with most other non-franchised freight and open access operators facing a similar dilemma.

That is because of the way in which operators of electric traction are given a choice to either agree fixed costs with Network Rail for their electricity supply or to accept the market price each month (see panel) [Not copied -- Ed.].

RAIL understands that a majority of franchised passenger operators fall into the former category and are therefore currently protected against the recent sharp price increase. Any franchised operators which do not have a fixed price contract would also be able to pass on any cost increase directly to government.

But for Freightliner and other operators in the latter category, which may previously have had fixed rate contracts that have since expired, they must now try to find a way to absorb the price hike, pass it on to customers, or to avoid it completely by switching to an alternative (albeit more polluting) fuel source.

We have more, much more, to look forward to. "Official government policy is to deliver a net zero emissions rail network by 2050. Published in July, the Transport Decarbonisation Plan restates an ambition to remove all diesel traction from the railway by 2040 and to invest in increasing the proportion of rail freight hauled by electric traction."