Great light rail systems and services continue to play a fundamental role in local economies, improving the general quality of life for our communities, and putting passengers on the path to a low-carbon future. This is one of our key roles as operators.

With the Rail Delivery Group’s 2050 deadline for carbon-zero so far away, it seems easily achievable for our industry and as such, we believe our current environmental policies don’t need tweaking. Already being much greener than other modes of public transport, we’ll await the next engineering feat to enable neutrality; through vehicle or track innovations, and seemingly a cost to consider in the future.

Here at Pre Metro, we’ve begun to take the practical steps toward establishing net-zero emissions, and we’re aiming to become the first licensed Train Operating Company in the UK to do so.

Across the past two years, we’ve decreased the emissions of our fleet by approximately 20% through improved maintenance and vehicle improvements, though we know service reduction during the pandemic will have played some part in this.

We could allow this figure to progressively decrease in the coming decades, but we realise the value of reducing our carbon footprint in a shorter-term time frame, encouraging future patronage growth and facilitating our VLR expansion efforts.

To reinforce this belief, we have set ourselves the goal to reduce our carbon output and support local offset schemes, decreasing our emissions to 50 tonnes of CO2 by Q4 2026.

We expect to have reduced our fleet emissions to below 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum, which can be offset through local environmental projects across Dudley until service or vehicle adjustments can be made in the future.

Charlie Merrell, Pre Metro’s Press and Marketing Officer, has been establishing a strategy to achieve our aspirations and support locals across Dudley.

“At Pre Metro, we believe that light rail operators ought to utilise modern methods and technologies to enable greater energy efficiency and achieve Net-Zero, sooner rather than later. Studies show that 1 in 3 students view the climate crisis as the greatest concern for their generation, and they are many of our daily passengers.” 

“To support a brighter and cleaner future for both the railway and Stourbridge, we will support local projects to help offset our already-low emissions and support the community. By doing this, we hope to set an example for other operators to follow.”

Pre Metro hopes to lead the way for other Light Rail operators to enforce proactive policies, by achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.