SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

 

Our proposals recognise the environmental sensitivity of the railway reinstatement, particularly within the National Park.

 

However, the present situation is not sustainable. 

 

The Monsal Trail, as safeguarded railway land, represents wholly inefficient land utilisation for transport, particularly when faced with the 'unsustainable transport problem' that is c90% of the 13.25 million annual visitors arriving by car. 

 

Our approach includes absorbing the sentiment of the Environment Bill into the project with a seamless link of biodiversity net gain with development.

 

Re-routing the Monsal Trail off the railway alignment enables that narrow strip of land to become an efficient high-capacity and sustainable transport link once again, whilst enabling creative and innovative solutions to deliver the prospect of a longer trail that is both recreational and more functional.

Academic work in support of our proposals to date includes:

 

• An MSc research project which highlighted the considerable biodiversity net gain available from this project including nature recovery networks
• A carbon modelling project which showed that not only is #NetZero available for the National Park ahead of 2050, but also identified that modal shift of 48% from road to rail is possible, significantly reducing road-based visitor traffic. 

 

Our academic work was undertaken in part because it is widely acknowledged that electric vehicles do nothing to reduce congestion nor do they reduce the harmful tyre/road partiulate emissions. 

 

The project team has advised the Peak District National Park Authority that there are opportunities for conditions to be added to the statutory powers attached to a railway reinstatement Development Consent Order (DCO).

 

These time-limited statutory powers, could enable opportunities to support and maximise any desired environmental and sustainability benefits on neighbouring land as part of the reinstatement.  We have encouraged the Park to share their priorites in relation to this opportunity.