Piggyback plans derail
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by Karen Miles • Fears that the nation's largest railfreight project will fail to start are creating a crisis of confidence in the sector's planned renaissance.
A funding logjam, which is holding back the inn-oduction of the long-planned piggyback system from Scotland to the Channel, could threaten to leave the project dead by the end of the year.
That would mean the 400,000 international lorry journeys each year that were to be transferred to rail by around 2005 would continue on road.
Problems centre on funding of the .1;250m Mossend to Folkestone upgrade which requires costly engineering works to allow larger Euro rail wagons and standard 4m high trailers to travel along the route.
To keep the scheme economic, the group behind the project says engineering contracts have to be in place early in the New Year so work can coincide with passenger service upgrades on the West Coast main line.
But rail infrastructure provider Railtrack is straggling, complaining about a lack of commitment from rail freight companies and hauliers to pledge support for the project. Railtrack must be convinced of tangible interest in the scheme before it funds between f..100m and £150m of the project's total cost. Although it has yet to lodge its grant application with the Government, the scheme's promoter, the Piggyback Consortium, says unless the scheme gains funding by the end of the year the project will collapse.
LI Rail operator EWS is buying 20 Eurospine wagons, each of which carries four lorry trailers. which are due for delivery next March. Parcelforce already uses the Eurospines between Mossend in Scotland and Willesden in London. "We have lots of other customers interested but until we've got the wagons built they won't make a firm commitment. We know we can fill the slots," says a spokeswoman for EWS.