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RAIL CAPACITY Building a railway line from scratch is extremely
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expensive but in order to increase the capacity for freight on the UK rail system you don't have to build new lines, It is cheaper, quicker and more economic to improve the lines we already have, says Dr Anthony Whiteing, senior lecturer at the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds.
He argues that relatively easy steps such as lowering tracks so new, taller containers can be carried through tunnels would do much to improve capacity.
Another possibility is lengthening the overtaking loops on existing lines so freight trains can pull off the main track to allow passenger express trains to overtake them.
Whiteing explains: "We do have quite a lot of passing loops, but some of them are too short for the length of modern freight trains. They need to be half a mile long, and many are not.
"Lengthening some of them would mean that freight trains would not be held up for hours because the track has to be kept clear for passenger services."
Re-laying tracks where they have been removed would also be a relatively economical way of increasing capacity.
Whiteing reports: "There are many sections of line in this country which used to have four tracks but have been cut back to two, or from two tracks to one. These could be restored."
This is already happening in some places, such as on the main West Coast line near Nuneaton, which is going back to a fast and slow line after years of operating a single track in each direction,