COMMENT
Rail freight seems to be losing the battle for political support against road hauliers in England – but is having more success north of the border. RTM spoke to the Rail Freight Group’s new Scottish co- ordinator, David Spaven.
R
ail has dodged the public spend- ing cuts better than most indus- tries, but rail freight particularly
is feeling bruised after its latest bout with the politicians.
Freight Facilities Grants (FFGs) – capital investment to get haulage off the roads and onto rail – have been axed in England. But a decision to scrap them in Scotland has been reversed and they have won a reprieve, al- beit at a lower level of funding than in the past. The success was partly thanks to the high-level lobbying of the Rail Freight Group, angry that projects like the second
20 | rail technology magazine Feb/Mar 11
The £300 million Airdrie to Bathgate rail link could have strategic benefits for Scottish rail freight
Forth Road Bridge seem set to go ahead while rail grants were under threat.
Days after taking up his new role as Scottish co-ordinator for the RFG, David Spaven got stuck into the fray, before speaking to Rail Technology Magazine.
He said: “I think that rail freight gener- ally is far less well understood than pas- sengers moving by rail, because every- body can experience being a passenger themselves, while freight is something of a hidden, mysterious world. Ironically the debate that’s been going since plans were announced that FFGs were to be axed in Scotland has perhaps allowed us to raise awareness of rail freight generally amongst politicians in Scotland, because they’ve had to confront this issue, and the fact that rail freight’s useful in terms of bringing eco- nomic benefits, environmental benefits and commercial benefits. Paradoxically, fingers crossed, some wider good might come out of this debate.
“The availability of FFG has been absolutely critical to the vast majority of modal switch from road to rail in the last decade or more, everything from bulk road salt through to supermarket supplies – all kinds of com- modities. It’s been critical to have capi- tal grant available to make it easier to tip the balance from road to rail and without capital grants it’s very hard to see how new railheads can develop or how distinctive new flows into new parts of the country can be brought on rail. FFG or something equivalent – or hopefully even better – is absolutely fundamental to the growth of rail freight, other than in the very big heavy traffics like coal which is a natural for rail in the current economic situation.”
The FFG issue has been fought nationwide, but there are some distinctive issues in Scotland.
Spaven said: “Scotland has similar circum- stances to those you’d find in ‘peripheral’ countries like Sweden or Norway – a fairly
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