Avoiding Pollution

Our business could pollute the air through exhaust emissions, solvents and dust. Land and water could become polluted from chemicals, oils, fuel, toilet effluent and litter. Problems with excessive noise or lighting might affect people who live or work near the railway.

We know the highest risk of pollution comes from the engineering and maintenance depots and the day-to-day running of our trains. Controlling pollution from the depots is managed via several Environmental Management Systems, all of them within the standards of ISO14001 – an international standard that sets out the minimum a company should be achieving in terms of the law and environmental responsibility. By December 2009, we intend to have just one Environmental Management System that will cover the whole business. Pollution can then be kept to a minimum while we try to find new ways to reduce levels even further.

One area we need to look at is how much the exhaust fumes from diesel trains are affecting the environment. Not much is known at the moment but a report by AEA Technology concluded that, at busy stations where there may be a lot of idling diesel trains, it could cause problems with air quality.

After reading this, we decided to monitor and study the air quality at some of our stations. So, during 2009, while trains are running to their normal, everyday timetables, we will be checking the air quality and once we get the results, we’ll let you know.