The House of Lords Science & Technology Committee has called for the government to accelerate the railway electrification programme in a report following an inquiry on batteries and fuel cells. The report – Battery strategy goes flat: Net-zero target at risk – says that the UK’s rail electrification programme is “falling behind schedule”. It adds: “The government must ensure that the railway electrification programme is accelerated in order that it reaches as far as is economically and technically feasible by 2040, when diesel trains will be phased out.” Electrification of the railway network (using cables and live rails) will have to be “strategic and extensive”, the report says.