The UK’s first ‘one-of-a-kind’ biomethane-powered railcar was launched by our friends at Ultra Light Rail Partners (ULRP) on July 22nd, 2020, at Motorail’s Long Marston testing facility. Our very own Mick Hickinbottom provided training and supervision for the Motorail crews involved in the demonstration.

The vehicle, named the STEAMUltra, draws on our very own Stourbridge Shuttle Class 139 railcar design. Powered by biomethane and a flywheel providing a kinetic energy store, it is hoped that the ultra-light railcar would “be able to provide smaller cities, towns and inter-rural to urban locations with a real alternative to expensive heavy rail and metro options”.

From our own experience here in Stourbridge, we know that light rail is cheaper and more effective than the heavy rail and metro systems that currently operate in the UK. But why is it so important for rail to get clean and go green?

To answer this question, Beverley Nielsen (the chair of ULRP) cited recent works by Sustainability West Midlands produced for the West Midlands Combined Authority. It was identified that decreasing the amount of just one pollutant by 50% could prevent just under 1000 deaths and save almost £1.4 million of NHS costs in the West Midlands area per year.

“People living in more deprived areas are disproportionally sensitive to the cumulative health effects of poor air quality; areas with a low Index of Multiple Deprivation and especially with low health index scores, are at greatest risk.”

“For example, where respiratory or cardiovascular disease is already present in a community, the impact of air pollution is worse than in an otherwise healthy one. With steel wheels on steel rails, light rail benefits from a lack of rubber tyres to cause emissions, and from greater traction energy efficiency brought about by lower friction.”

Whilst also being much more beneficial for our health, a biomethane-powered vehicle is recognised as a much greener option than alternatives. This is due to biomethane having the lowest carbon content among any of the hydrocarbon fuels, therefore being the cleanest fuel. In contrast, we know that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change by increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Most recently on November 6th, ULRP announced that they have been awarded a second grant by Innovate UK. It is hoped that with this funding, the company will be able to develop feasibility studies and a design for a larger railcar that would be capable of carrying 120 passengers: the ‘BioUltra’.

The hope for ULRP and the future of biomethane-fuelled light rail is that private investors will be on board with the idea once the larger capacity vehicle has been developed.

The ULRP suggests that the ‘BioUltra’ could be used on existing rail lines “where turn-up-and-go shuttle services could be offered”, whilst also looking to target reopened rail lines “following the government’s programme aimed at reversing the Beeching rail closures through a £500 million fund aimed at reconnecting towns across the country.”

One of these reopened lines could be the Brierley Hill line which we have already submitted a bid to develop and operate.

Alongside this, the feasibility studies proposed by ULRP would also involve Pre Metro providing our knowledge and proficiency within the light rail industry to aid them.

In time, the studies could provide some of us with a chance to visit the Long Marson test facility and see these much greener and cleaner vehicles which could one day be in operation at Stourbridge Junction, and across the rest of the UK.