Virgin Paves the Way for Greener Technology

Europe's first biodiesel train has been launched by Virgin Trains in a UK trial run as part of a national biodiesel programme.

In its first journey, the Virgin Voyager – which runs on 20% biodiesel blend – travelled from London Euston to North Wales carrying future Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson.

As part of the investment in biodiesel, special fuelling points have been installed at Bombardier Transportation's depots and modifications have been made to the Cummins engines.

Virgin hope to convert Voyager trains to run solely on biofuel to reduce the fleet's CO2 emissions by up to 14% but claim the current higher duty on biodiesel – at 54p a litre – means changes to duty levels would be required for a viable conversion to the environmentally friendly fuel.