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Brace yourselves...you might finally have some real competition to worry
Page 9
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about. The Strategic Rail Authority's latest 10-year plan (why is every plan nowadays a "10-year plan"?)
proposes some bold actions—not least an 8o% increase in freighttonne kilometres, along with new track, new trains, new stations: in fact, a whole new dawn. Not surprisingly, it's been enthusiastically welcomed by
English, Welsh & Scottish Railways, which claims: "Rail freight has grown by 40% since 1996 and currently saves nine-million lorry journeys a year." We doubt that truck operators will have seen that saving in terms of road congestion, and we have yet to hear from angry readers complaining about being undercut by rail. But that could all change when the proposed "revenue support scheme" (surely not a fancy name for subsidy?) for rail freight is set up "to encourage competition and get more freight off road and onto rail". Meanwhile, we've spotted two notable omissions in the S RA's plan. First, much of it is dependent on private-sector funding. Second, and more important, is how the SRA plans to encourage greater partnerships with road hauliers (you know, those strange folk at the start and finish of every rail-freight journey). For the sake of the country, if not road hauliers, we hope that the SRA's scheme does deliver It really is about time the rail freight industry did more than just whistle in the graveyard...