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Wednesday 10 Nov 2021

Award-winning authors inspire Glasgow schoolchildren aboard green train on COP26 Transport Day

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National

Best-selling authors of the Adventures on Trains series, M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman, teamed up with Network Rail this afternoon to take schoolchildren from Glasgow on a fun-packed literary adventure aboard Porterbrook's HydroFLEX train celebrating Transport Day at the climate change conference.  

Children from St. Roch's Primary School were joined by the authors and engineers from Network Rail and Porterbrook to learn about the secrets of storytelling and how technology is powering rail’s green revolution in Britain.

The children had taken part in a recent competition organised by Scotland’s Railway, asking children from primary schools in Scotland to find creative ways to encourage people to live a bit greener and travel by train.

They also had the chance to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was on board to get a closer look at the British technology which will play an important role in making rail travel even greener. 

Maya and Sam’s fifth book, titled Sabotage on the Solar Express, will be released in February next year, featuring a train of the future powered by solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells.

Just like the train in the next book, the Porterbrook HydroFLEX is a hybrid train that can be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and the overhead electric wires.

Whilst on board, the children were treated to a tour of the HydroChamber, where hydrogen will be stored to power the train, and were given a reading of Maya and Sam's most recently published book, Danger at Dead Man’s Pass. They also took part in an imaginative activity to get them thinking about the joy of train travel and how we can make trains greener in the future, and discussed their ideas with engineers from Network Rail and Porterbrook. 

Last year, Network Rail became the first railway company in the world to commit to the most stretching science-based targets for reducing carbon. A key part of the strategy for achieving those targets is decarbonising traction energy through further overhead line electrification and using alternative fuels, including hydrogen and battery-powered trains.  

ENDS