Running more, longer, and more punctual, freight trains makes rail haulage more attractive to potential customers. We can now do this if, as expected, passenger numbers do not return to pre-Covid levels. There is now capacity on the network to run the type of freight that this country needs.
A decline in commuter traffic into busy termini also opens up paths for light-freight services – see the proposals for a light rail shuttle to London Liverpool St as an example.
The basics are all there, for the first time, to encourage more freight onto our railways.
What’s needed:
– a refocusing within the DfT towards the needs of FOCs (especially making it easier for them to invest by altering some onerous restrictions on railway investment).
– publicising the convenience of rail freight to non-traditional customers
– a strategy to encourage light-freight movements and fixing the ‘last mile’ problem (as Amazon is doing around Liverpool st with bikes)
Doing so helps us to achieve our Carbon Emissions Target, reduces congestion (and particulate pollution), and offers a new opportunity to sustainably fund rail infrastructure (rail freight is often the most profitable customer). It could also help kick-start a manufacturing renaissance – just as the original railways did.
If this is of any interest, I would be very happy to go into more detail.
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