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Road still accounts for 70% of European freight journeys but that could change as Europe puts money into intermodal research and development. An EC-backed report published this month targets 400,000 UK lorry movements which could switch to rail. Is this a gravy train that hauliers should join?
Tike a train slowly approaching a station there is an inevitability about the i stately progress of intermodal transport later this month, a report predicts that 400,000 lorry loads a year can be switched to rail at competitive rates from Ireland and the UK through Folkestone to the Continent.
The report by the Piggyback Consortium, has a number of objectives. One is to allow the regions to benefit from the Channel Tunnel when it opens for freight, mooted to be sometime this month. Hauliers are invited to embrace the opportunity to get involved in the soon-to-be privatised railfreight network.
But what is the Piggyback Consortium and why should anyone listen to it? Members include Kent County Council—an authority keen to divert freight to rail—Eurotunnel, the Freight Transport Association, North West Channel Tunnel Group, P&O Ferrymasters, Railtrack and French railways freight division, SNCF Fret Many regional enterprise boards are represented. The prime objective is to get freight traffic on to rail for as much of its journey as possible.
Its report has been partly paid for by the European Communities PACT (Pilot Action for Combined Transport) programme, launched last year with a small budget to encourage the development of intermodal routes. PACT is prepared to pay for both research and capital equipment with grants restricted to 50% of a feasibility study and up to 33% of equipment costs. Hauliers can get individual help but success is more likely if several transport operators work together to improve or implement a pan-European intermodal route, according to Helene Chraye, administrator in charge of combined transport for the E C Directorate General for Transport PACT has stumped up .C60,000 for the Piggyback Consortium's research since October with the Consortium finding a further £60,000 to pay for its report "We may go back to PACT to ask for money for the capital project following the report's launch," says the Consortium's spokesman, Nick Gallop of Kent County Council.
Technical matters
The report has examined routes, environmental benefits and technical matters. "We've looked at every bridge and tunnel in the British Rail system," says Gallop. "Some are wider than others because they were built before nationalisation by different companies." One of the main problems to overcome has been the fact that many BR platforms are too narrow for the Continentalstandard Piggyback trailers while some bridges are too low for the 4m high boxes. The Consortium believes this problem can be remedied at a cost of .C100m as opposed to BR's original estimate of £3bn.
There are currently 28,000 Piggyback units in use on the Continent, designed to be crane-lifted off lorries straight on to a train, with the crane engaging lifting pods on the container's side. Based on that experience the Consortium has market-tested rates with potential UK customers and found a degree of acceptance. But it will not say yet what those rates are: "Competitive with road haulage" is all Gallop will reveal.
The track on which the Piggyback system could run is the property of Government agency Railtrack, set to be privatised along with the rest of BR. The running of an intermodal Piggyback system on that track is open to offers. "Once the report is published, we hope private operators will come either to run the service or get involved by investing in a trailer," says Gallop. It is this latter end that may tempt the small to medium haulier, especially if there is a possibility of the pill being sugared by Euro money.
The Channel Tunnel must have a significant bearing on the success of intermodal routes to the Continent, although as John Chapman, responsible for Le Shuttle sales at Euroturmel, points out, it depends on what you call `intermodal'. "The lion's share of freight will continue to go by road with Le Shuttle carrying lorries, some of which will include swapbodies and containers intended for railheads."
Waiting eagerly for the Channel Tunnel to open is another consortium, Combined Transport Ltd (CTL), launched with a great fanfare, but no government money, by then Transport Secretary Malcolm Rifkind in the autunm of 1991. CTL's shareholders include the Road Haulage Association, 50 UK hauliers, including NFC, plus French rail and haulage companies. "There is a political will for combined transport but it has not been channelled into money," laments Mike Stockdale, CTL's commercial manager.
However, Stockdale is cheered by the Government's recent decision to allow 44tonne lorries intended for railheads. "It will make our operators competitive with those on the Continent," he explains. CTL intends to launch a through service to Italy to coincide with the Chunnel's opening, with up to two trains a day, equivalent to about 45 lorry loads daily, saving thousands of road journeys in a year. Services to France and Spain will follow but Italy was first choice because intermodally it is a mature market "There is a lot of equipment about" CTL has not published a rates tariff and does not intend to, preferring to negotiate with its customers on volume. Its rival, Allied Continental Intermodal, published rates for key mutes as early as November last yearrates due to be implemented when the Channel Tunnel opens. On its Italian route, ACI asks £702.43 to take a 13.6m swapbocly of 27 tonnes from London to Milan.
New equipment
The tunnel's late opening has led to claims for compensation by both French rail operator SNCF and British Rail. Both organisations say they have invested millions of pounds in new equipment which they cannot use and have consequently lost face with freight customers.
Ahead of the tunnel and grandiose plans for Piggyback systems which may or may not find backers, three operators are getting on with a workable combi system which links lorry, sea and rail to Austria. Smallscale it may be-12 bodies a week cross the channel—but freight forwarder Davies Turner, with hauliers Sheddick Transport from South Wales and William Lucy from Liverpool, offer an example in how road journeys can be reduced, freeing lorries for more local work.
Previously Lucy took its loads from Liverpool to Austria by road. Now it drops swapbodies at Dover where they are loaded on to slave trailers for the crossing to the railhead at Zeebrugge. When the Channel tunnel opens, Lucy will need to go no further than the railhead at Manchester.
Road transport may have to accept a smaller share of the European freight cake as Europe increasingly listens to the concerns of environmentalists and those who want roads freed up for essential local freight journeys. But hauliers with an eye for an opportunity can capitalise on the new systems. The UK still has -Section 8 grants available to operators opening railheads. At present more than 70% of European freight travels by road, compared to about 50% in 1970. One European transport minister said recently that road haulage has "dominated markets to an extraordinary extent".
However, intermodal fans need to be wary of road transport's popularity Dr Henk Den Harder, boss of Holland's NEA Transport and Research Training, has warned against over-spending on intermodal systems: "There is a major risk of large but unproductive investments, because this market sector will not provide sufficient volume."
U by Patric Cunnane