WHAT NOW FOR RAIL FREIGHT?
Categories: Featured Articles
As the country emerges from recession, the Government has made one thing clear: if projects or sectors are to be supported by public money, they need to pull their weight.
New Transport Secretary Philip Hammond made this point in his speech to the National Rail Conference in July (RAIL 649): “If we get transport infrastructure projects right, they are one of the best investments the taxpayer can make - delivering economic benefits many times their cost.”
In a report released on the same day as Hammond’s call for “well-judged capital spending”, the economic value of rail freight was revealed. Network Rail published information showing that while the rail freight industry itself contributes £870 million to the UK economy, the industry supports economic output of £5.9 billion, more than six times as much as the direct turnover.
It is the type of economic statistic that the railways will need in the months ahead, to protect projects from the axe that is bound to accompany the results of October’s Comprehensive Spending Review.
However, these figures should not indicate that all is rosy in the rail freight garden. The most recent figures published by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) show that for the year 2009/10, the amount of freight moved on Britain’s rail network was 19.06 billion net tonne kilometres (ntkm), a decrease of 7.6% from the previous year. The 2008/9 total itself was down 2.6% year on year, and the lowest level since 2006/07.
The real details about the state of the industry post-recession, however, are revealed below that headline figure. Lord Tony Berkeley, Chairman of the Rail Freight Group, the representative body of the UK rail freight industry, says that the impact of the recession has been mixed… read more in RAIL 652, on sale 08/09/2010
