EU air quality rule to hit UK rail freight?
- Latest News
- Wednesday, 11 August 2010
The 'Non-Road Mobile Machinery Directive' that comes into force at the end of 2011 deals with emissions from the power units of non-road vehicles and machines, including railway vehicles.
Chris MacRae, the FTA's rail freight policy manager, said: "Not only does it require new build or re-engined locomotives to be fitted with a power unit that doesn't currently exist and is unlikely to in the immediate future, it is also questionable if the larger cooler system required for new build or re-engined locos would actually fit into existing locomotive designs due to the UK's restrictive load gauge.
"The situation is especially parlous for those operators of Class 66 locos if they want to re-engine them at future life-extension overhauls."
MacRae says supply of the Class 66 locomotives that currently move 95 per cent of UK rail freight could dry up if manufacturers do not build them to the new standards. He added that major European locomotive builders are not willing to build to the exacting new standards.
