Environmental management at our depots
Our depots are used for maintaining, fuelling and washing our vehicles, activities associated with incident and spillage risks. We provide training and awareness-raising for staff in fuelling and fuel delivery and spill response. Our central spill reporting procedures allow us to track the spills that do occur and apply lessons learnt. A number of minor incidents have occurred this year, most of which have been contained on-site. In instances where there has been a potential off-site risk we have actively liaised with the Environment Agency or Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
At our depots we work hard to improve the efficiency of operations and reduce potential environmental impacts by cutting water and utility usage and strengthening our waste management practices.
Water, electricity and gas usage is monitored at all depots in First Great Western and First ScotRail. First Hull Trains, GB Railfreight and First TransPennine Express sub-contract maintenance services to third parties and their data is not included.
This year we have also started to monitor utilities usage at key stations in First ScotRail and First TransPennine Express.
Water and energy usage
We continue to work on cutting the environmental impacts of our depots. This year we have reduced our energy consumption in buildings by 1%. When expressed per square metre of building, gas consumption has reduced by 5.4% and electricity usage by 9.7%. Water usage has risen due to a 6% increase in the number of vehicle units. There are also a number of known leakages exacerbated by access issues, which we are working with Network Rail to address.
