FOI - ULEZ with regard to aircraft and trains [Jul 2023]

Your request 

Please advise:

• The number of other airports, airfields both military and civil which fall within the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
• The estimated number of flights incoming and outgoing for the airfields within the zone.
• How emissions for all aircraft using said airfields will be collected.
• Whether said aircraft shall be subject to charges as is the case for motor vehicles or are they exempt and if so why?
• How many train stations fall within the new boundary.
• The number of trains using these stations if they are diesel (passenger and goods).
• Advise whether any of these trains will be subject to the charge or are they exempt and if so why?

Our response

The aim of the ULEZ is to reduce harmful air pollutant emissions from road transport. Road 
transport is the largest single source of both (NOx) nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter emissions (PM2.5).

As set out on the Transport for London (TfL) website, the ULEZ applies to motorcycles (and other category L vehicles), cars, vans and specialist vehicles (up to and including 3.5 tonnes), and minibuses (up to and including 5 tonnes). 

Neither trains nor aircraft are subject to the ULEZ.

Locations of airports, airfields and train stations

The GLA does not have a list of the number of airports, air fields or train stations that fall within the ULEZ. 

• TfL hosts a live, searchable map of the ULEZ on its website.
• TfL also provides open data via its GIS Open Data Hub.
• Ordnance Survey hosts publicly available data that include locations of airports, air fields and train stations.

Numbers and types of aircraft and trains 

The GLA does not hold information on the number of flights using airports and airfields in 
London.

The GLA does not hold information on the number or type of trains using train stations in 
London. 

Aviation emissions

The London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (LAEI) 2019 contains the most recent modelling of emissions of key pollutants in London by source type.

This is a public dataset and includes emissions estimates of key pollutants (NOx, PM10, PM2.5 and CO2) by source type (for example, road transport, aviation, rail, construction, etc) for the base year 2019. 

The spreadsheet entitled ‘Emissions – Data- Excel' files provides the emissions data by source and by borough and the file ‘Emissions- Data-GIS' provides mapped emissions data by source.

You can access this data by downloading the spreadsheet entitled ‘Emissions – Data- Excel’ on the London Datastore.

Whilst the LAEI includes emissions from aviation, it does not apportion these emissions to 
specific airports. As shown by the data, aviation represents a much smaller proportion of 
nitrogen oxides (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions than road transport.

This is summarised in the table below:

London NOx emission 2019  London PM2.5 emissions 2019

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting reference MGLA310723-3049.