Rail gets £4bn upgrade
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by Guy Sheppard More than 500 million miles' worth of truck journeys a year could be removed from the roads by a £4bn government programme designed to improve the competitiveness of rail freight.
The Strategic Rail Authority wants to upgrade routes, open new terminals and increase subsidies in a bid to meet the government's target of expanding rail freight by 80% over the next 10 years.
Although it was set up by the government to find ways of boosting all rail traffic, the SRA claims that freight services need to be put on an equal footing with passenger services.
To achieve this, it calls for upgrades on routes around London; between Felixstowe and Southampton to the West Midlands, the North-West and Scotland; and along the East Coast main line between London and East Anglia and the North-East.
Some .21.5bn is earmarked for infrastructure improvements which would allow 750m long trains on the network. These would be 50% longer than the current limit and would take the equivalent of 60 antic loads.
The rest of the £4bn would be split between subsidising services and developing more inter-modal terminals—the proposals are being put out for consultation before the SRA finalises its plans in the autumn.
SRA freight executive John Chapman says about 30% of the targeted growth would be in bulk freight services with the rest coming from general freight.
'Some of the more far-sighted logjstics companies are already looking at doing things differently now because of increased road congestion, driver shortages and the impact of the Working Time Directive," he adds.
The SRA says an 80% increase in rail freight would increase rail's market share from seven to 10%, equating to more than 500 million miles of truck journeys annually.
Karen Dee, policy director of the Road Haulage Association, says road haulage accounts for about 80% of the freight market. "It is not going to mean widescale reduction in haulage because the overall market in freight will probably grow anyway," she concludes.