TRAM: British and Australian (American usually streetcar also trolley) noun [C] An electric vehicle that transports people, usually in cities, and goes along metal tracks in the road. (Taken from the Cambridge English Dictionary)
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UK’S FIRST EMISSION FREE LIGHT RAILWAY IS MIDLAND METRO
Midland Metro – Sunday 7th October 2007
National Express Group – operators of the Midland Metro through their Travel Midland Metro subsidiary – have announced that they have become the first UK light rail operator to be totally emission free. This has come after they signed a deal with E.ON to supply renewable energy.
Richard Bowker, Chief Executive of National Express, said: “Moving to green electricity is part of our strategy to make National Express Group a low carbon business; we now have the first emission-free light rail system in the UK and are looking at ways to apply this to our electric trains which include c2c, 'one' railway and the new East Coast franchise."
However, green campaigners have dismissed the National Express claims, saying that electricity will also be coming from incineration and from the burning of landfill gases.
Chris Crean of Friends of the Earth commented: “If companies see that there is a PR value in being green, then that can only be a good thing. But this deal highlights just how important it is for the Government to make clear exactly what renewable energy is. Many people will believe that green electricity is coming from wind or hydroelectric power, but may not realise it is also coming from burning waste. And while it is good that we are using the dangerous greenhouse gases that are emitted from landfill sites, should we call it renewable? Would we have had this gas if we had reduced our waste in the first place and recycled?”
