Biodiversity net gain, carbon sequestration and climate resilience for railways

Opportunity

South Western Railway (SWR) operates train services across south-west England, from London to the south and west coasts. SWR is committed to become net-zero across its Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions by 2040 as well as achieve net positive impacts on biodiversity at its stations and depots.

SWR originally approached our nature services team for support with mapping sensitive ecological recpetors on the network for efficient planning of routine railway verge maintenance. This was an opportunity to take an integrated nature services approach and highlight the value these habitats can provide for railway operations, including improving the climate resilience of railway infrastructure and helping SWR to adopt a holistic approach to net zero.

Solution

Combining our nature services enabled us to develop a consolidated, holistic proposal for SWR to manage railway habitats along more than 5000km of track in ways that enhance biodiversity, increase carbon sequestration, and boost resilience to climate change. This involved:

• Mapping habitats on the SWR network and using the biodiversity metric from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to identify opportunities to enhance habitats to achieve biodiversity gains, while supporting operational requirements.
• Running the habitat data through our automated spreadsheet to estimate carbon sequestration rates of habitat along railway verges, and identify ways to manage these habitats to increase storage capacity
• Using climate projection data for the SWR network to identify key climate risks to habitats, and recommend measures to boost their resilience and minimise the effects of climate change on rail infrastructure and operations.

Outcome

We are collaborating with the SWR sustainability team, gathering their insights and feedback to inform our plan to manage railway habitats in ways that support a functioning of a railway, enhance biodiversity, increase carbon sequestration and improve climate change resilience. The focus is to support a step-change in thinking, so habitats are not just a constraint but a fundamental asset for a sustainable, resilient and reliable railway.