Freight
and maximise the payload, and improve loading and unloading of product. Another significant product from
forecast to decline significantly, as various industrial directives are implemented. Some power stations have already closed, and others are expected to follow over the decade. This will have a major impact on the shape of rail freight and the business of the operators. However, the movement of biomass offers opportunities to replace at least some part of this volume. Biomass, which is essentially chipped wood, can be burnt alongside coal, or if power plants are converted, used as a fuel in its own right. Some of the generators have already signalled their intention to convert wholly to biomass and are now establishing the supply chain to ensure that they can meet the demanding requirements that this conversion requires. Biomass cannot be wet, and is therefore difficult to store, meaning that trains will need to run on a ‘just in time’ basis far more than the existing coal trains do. It is also less dense, and has a lower calorific value, so more trainloads are required for an equivalent output. New wagons are now being designed to try
the North of England are construction aggregates which are extracted from large quarries in the Peak District and East Midlands. As well as rail ballast, this material is shipped in huge quantities to the south east of England, where there is no native stone, just sand and gravel. Increasingly, rail is being used to serve other conurbations, and short distance services to Manchester and Leeds also operate. Cement runs on rail from the major works at Buxton and Hope and there are other niche flows.
Other bulk traffic includes waste, steel, petrochemicals and oil products, plus a range of smaller flows such as iron ore. You can see that the North of England is home to a diverse mix of rail freight which is important both to the region and the national economy.
Capacity and capability So what is necessary to support this industry and ensure that it can continue to thrive on the network? The consultation gave good coverage to rail freight and its needs alongside those of passenger, noting that the key issues are likely to be capacity and capability. On congested mixed traffic routes, fitting freight alongside passenger aspirations will prove challenging – indeed the current Trans-pennine proposals for the post electrification timetable are causing difficulties in pathing existing freight services, let alone additional growth. If devolution causes new passenger services
to be developed, this may become a tension across the region. There will need to be consideration of how more freight can run overnight, and at weekends, and how services can be longer and perhaps heavier. Ironically the move to biomass away from coal may help this, by its need to run on a timetable basis more closely matched to the passenger service. The consultation makes much of the need for gauge clearance, and this may well be needed on certain routes where intermodal prospers. Showing how and where freight can benefit from the electrification schemes is also necessary. Of course, the plans for devolution are yet to be concluded, and the future governance of rail in the north yet to be determined. Should the Northern and Transpennine franchises move into local control, we would like to see a strong duty on any new body or agency to consider the needs of freight, as the Rail Regulator and others have today, and for them to become a strong advocate of rail freight in the North.
It is clear that there are strong prospects for rail freight in the north of England, and that although the possibility of devolution raises some potential tensions, the current approach from Rail North is encouraging, with good coverage of freight in the consultation and welcome consultation. We look forward to working constructively whatever the franchise outcome in the coming months and years.
•
Lord Anthony Berkeley is chairman of the Rail Freight Group
www.rfg.org.uk Rail North
www.railstrategynorth.com
December 2013 Page 63
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