Help us stand up and be counted for sustainable rail

Rail cleanly connects Britain’s towns, cities, and people at up to 300kph. It takes our goods to our ports and brings back others from the rest of the world, while saving our roads from gridlock. Rail adds millions to our economy, while saving tonnes of carbon and improving countless lives.

But until quite recently, we haven’t tried to put a figure on any of this.

It can be easy to overlook the power of numbers, but they’ve vital to everything RSSB does. For instance, we’ve helped the industry make great strides in safety: all built on, and powered by, data. Like that collected by our Safety Management Information System.

Armed with solid numbers, we can do more of the things that work, and less of those that don’t. And achieve greater financial, environmental, and social sustainability, sometimes in areas we’d never even considered before. 

There are projects happening all across rail. The people who made them happen know the difference these individual actions have made, and can make in the future. For instance…

• The Network Rail initiative that generated 50% of the power for a remote site with a single rented ‘solartainer’ saving £3,000 and 10,000 litres of diesel fuel. 
• Over three years, one major infrastructure programme generated over £550 million in procurement, recruitment, community outreach, and measures of other social value.
• RSSB coupler strength research will reduce rail freight’s overall transportation costs along with its carbon footprint. New strength ratings prove that 12,000+ wagons, that’s over 50% of Britain’s fleet, can safely haul more weight. This means longer freight trains, improving each journey’s environmental impact as well as its financial efficiency. The projected annual financial savings are £364,000, with environmental savings of 2.1 tonnes of CO2.
• New standards for AC electrified lines could deliver industry savings in excess of £27 million per 100 single track kilometres of electrification, over a five-year period. As well as reducing infrastructure costs we could also reuse more existing infrastructure.

These are big numbers, and now it’s time to put them all together. 

That’s why RSSB has been leading the industry’s effort to quantify exactly how sustainable GB rail is, and how it could be even more sustainable in the future. 

• We’ve calculated the entire network’s carbon footprint. Our Rail Carbon Tool lets you do the same for your projects, as well as assess alternative low carbon options.
• We’re valuing dozens of social and community activities. The Rail Social Value Tool (RSVT) allows you to forecast, monitor, and evaluate the social value of rail activities. 500 indicators, across 12 types of social impact, let the RSVT measure and monetise social benefits. This includes jobs created and biodiversity value.
• For the first time ever, we’re measuring air quality around the network. The Stations Air Quality Monitoring Network will allow rail to check its compliance with incoming Government targets and pin-point specific areas for improvement.

A lot of people are counting on the industry to make the case for sustainable rail. We need your support as we identify and collect this vital data. Using our tools you can help add to the industry’s store of data too. And aligning rail around a common set of performance metrics will drive real change, to benefit us all.

We want to make rail’s actions count. Can we count on you to help?