Freight

Background

There are four main freight operating companies, the largest of which is English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS). The other major companies in the rail freight sector are Freightliner Ltd (formerly the British Rail container business), Direct Rail Services (DRS) and GB Railfreight.

Types of freight carried include intermodal — in essence containerised freight — and coal, metals, oil, and construction material.

Freight services had been in steady decline since the 1950s, although the Department for Transport's Transport Ten Year Plan calls for an 80% increase in rail freight measured from a 2000–1 base.

A symbolic loss to the UK rail freight industry was the custom of the Royal Mail, which from 2004 discontinued use of its 49-train fleet, and switching to road haulage after a near 170-year-preference for trains. Mail trains had long been part of the tradition of the UK railways, not least because of the film Night Mail, for which W. H. Auden wrote the poem of the same name.

Since the late 1990's Britain's rail freight operating companies have invested in well over 400 brand new Class 57, Class 66 and Class 67 locomotives and in excess of 3000 new wagons.

Environment effects

Rail freight cleans up the air we breath. Compared with carrying the same tonnage by road, rail produces less than one tenth of the carbon monoxide; around one twentieth of the nitrogen oxide; less than 9% of the fine particulates and around 10% of the volatile organic compounds.

Rail freight helps protect our countryside. Rail freight takes around 7 million tonnes of freight off the roads in Britain's National Parks every year. This is vital to safeguard sensitive environments and the welfare of local communities.

The Government's own highly conservative figures show that in the next ten years rail freight could deliver environmental benefits worth well over £4 billion. Figures consistent with European studies value the environmental benefits at more than £5 billion.

Freight Facts

The benefits of rail freight are plentiful. Here’s a few facts:

The Current Situation and Room for Growth

• In the past 10 years rail freight has grown by 70%. Rail has 12% of the UK surface freight market.
• In the year 2007/08 rail freight moved 21.18 billion net tonne kilometres.

Economic Case

• Road congestion is claimed to cost businesses £17 billion per annum.
• An average freight train can remove 50 HGVs journeys from our roads whilst an aggregates freight train can remove 120 HGV journeys from our roads.
• HGVs only pay between one to two thirds of the costs they impose on society, depending on the way it is calculated.
• Lorries are up to 160,000 times more damaging to road surfaces than the average car; some of the heaviest road repair costs are therefore almost exclusively attributable to the heaviest vehicles.
• It costs £24 million to build one mile of motorway.
• The estimated cost of building high-speed rail per kilometre is £14 million. This is about £19.3 per mile. About 80% of the cost of motorway.

Environmental Case

• Transport is the fastest growing source of climate change. Road transport alone account for 26% of UK emissions.
• HGV traffic has grown by 20% with a 14% rise in CO2 emissions.

• HGVs are responsible for 20% of carbon dioxide emissions from all domestic transport and road freight now account for 8% of UK carbon dioxide emissions.
• Per tonne carried, rail produces between five and ten times less emissions than road transport.
• Energy efficiency is directly related to carbon dioxide emissions, rail is significantly more energy efficient than other modes with the exception of shipping. Per tonne carried, road transport will requires between 4 to 7 times more energy than rail.
• The health impacts of traffic pollution cost £11.1bn each year.
• Rail overall produces 1.7% of the total UK emissions of Carbon dioxide compared to 21% from road transport.

The Safety Case

• HGVS were twice as likely to be involved in fatal accidents as cars in 2007.
• HGVs in the UK account for only 6% of all vehicle-km driven but are involved in 17% of road accidents where there are fatalities.
• 1 rail passenger died during 2007. 2946 people died in road accidents during the same period.
• Over 82% of HGVs exceeded their speed limit of 50 mph on dual carriageways and almost three-quarters exceeded the 40 mph limit on single carriageway non-built up roads in 2007.