The government's 10-year transport plan published in July gave heartening
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news for rail freight, including funding of .£4bn over 10 years. Equally important, it recognised the need to encourage rail freight to offer a reliable and cost-effective alternative to road freight at a time of increasing road congestion.
Both the CBI and the ETA had campaigned with rail-freight customers, emphasising the need for such a policy, and the government has shown its confdence in the industry. We now have to deliver.
Road congestion is already affecting industry in many parts of the country and we find it hard to accept the government's assertions that, if the 10-year plan is implemented in total, road congestion will go down by 6%. Maybe in some places, but probably not where most road freight wants to go!
The fuel crisis affects rail freight in many ways, with the actual price of fuel affecting its competitive position. The government must take this into account when setting the economic, social and environmental framework so road and rail can compete fairly. Equally important is the need for the whole industry to be able to make a reasonable return on their businesses, something often lacking at the moment in both the road and rail-freight industries.
So how can rail freight help beat the jams? For the many journeys suitable for rail freight, we want to provide a seamless service for customers from origin to destination, in partnership with the logistics industry. This will mean that freight trains will need to run when the operators want to run them, and not be shunted into sidings until a suitable train path appears. We make the point that ajudgement sometimes has to be made about the value to society at large between competing demands of a 1,000-tonne freight train and a single-car passenger coach with just two passengers on a cheap day out, who would not have travelled on a full-fare ticket!
The industry is working with Railtrack and the SRA to ensure that terminals are always accessible by rail during periods of maintenance, particularly at night when much freight wishes to run. The industry plans to run faster trains on many services, particularly for customers for whom speed is important; these have the added advantage of fitting in better with the speed of many passenger trains.
Capacity enhancements on rail are planned for some routes to cater for the planned growth of 50% in passenger traffic and 80% in freight over the next 10 years.
Finally, there is the need to ensure that land suitable for terminals is preserved for potential rail use. We must move to a situation where local authorities will require the availability of a rail connection in the same way that they require reasonable road access for a new development. In the meantime, sites which might be suitable and which have or could have suitable planning zoning are worth preserving at all cost—something that the government and the Rail Regulator have at last realised.
The future is bright for rail freight. Customers want the industry to succeed and, for the first time in many decades, there is money on the table. The challenge for the industry now is to demonstrate that we can spend it wisely, and deliver the service quality that customers expect.