Freight
fuel costs representing 40 per cent of truck operating costs now up from 33 per cent, two years ago, according to FTA. Congestion also has an enormous impact on fuel consumption. Longer-term, more electric traction
will increase the differential between road and rail in the UK. According to a European Transport Market study for UIC Zurich, based on much higher electric use than in this country, the average external costs of rail transport were 20 per cent of the road costs for freight per tonne-km7
. In the past, rail has not published
detailed data on different types of cargos; DEFRA has an average figure of 28.5 grams of CO2 per tonne km, which the industry believed overstated the carbon intensity of heavy haul rail. The figure for articulated HGV’s is around 83.8 grams CO2 per tonne km. However, detailed research for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport8
recording the exact fuel
usage and train weights of consumer trains indicate that the DEFRA figure also overstates the CO2 impact of consumer rail freight (intermodal and domestic intermodal) traffic because
What is Freight on Rail? Freight on Rail members are Campaign for Better Transport , DB Schenker, Freightliner, Direct
Rail Services, ASLEF, RMT, TSSA, and Rail Freight Group The partnership works to promote the economic, social, safety and environmental
benefits of rail freight both nationally and locally. Members of Freight on Rail identified that helping local authorities to set the right
planning framework is a key component of realising this shift to rail. So Freight on Rail was set up to help authorities through all the stages of the process such as protecting land, planning a rail freight strategy, accessing and understanding technical issues and obstacles, as well as engaging with terminal operators, local business and the logistics industry. Rail freight volumes cannot increase without the right spatial planning framework in
local plans to protect disused alignments and sites for suitable interchanges. In particular, planning permission for rail interchanges, without which rail freight cannot increase, will not be secured unless the right policies are enshrined in the spatial planning framework. Under the coalition government, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP’s), which are business
and local authorities partnerships, are increasingly important in setting the sub-national agenda. So Freight on Rail is hoping to influence local economic strategies which the LEP’s are producing for the first time so that they can take into account the benefits of promoting rail freight in their regions. These strategies will define key priority projects which LEP’s will bid for in the local growth fund, which is a six-year scheme starting in 2015 with £2 billion funding each year to be shared between transport, housing and skills-related schemes. Campaign against mega trucks At present, Freight on Rail is heavily involved, both at a UK and European level, in the campaign against 82ft mega trucks which are more dangerous, more polluting, more damaging to road infrastructure and cause more road congestion than existing HGV’s. While recognising that rail and road complement each other, we believe that rail is a safer and more environmental way to carry large quantities of freight over distance than even larger lorries and trucks. A facilitator to rail Freight on Rail does not underestimate the barriers to making a shift to rail, but believes by acting as a facilitator within the industry it can promote dialogue and help local authorities get hold of the information they need from Network Rail and the rail freight operators, such as detailed site information and flow forecasts, to help identify freight traffic which could be transferred to rail. It can intervene at a local level to make the wider case for rail freight facilities in cases where there is local opposition. The bottom line is that without planning permission for new interchanges/terminals, more freight cannot be removed from our congested road network. Freight on Rail responds to governmental consultation documents concerning transport and planning as well as transport, freight and spatial strategies. It benefits from its strong relationship with Campaign for Better Transport and its close links with other environmental NGO’s, transport campaigners, union members and transport and planning bodies. It writes articles, literature, including regular columns and runs a web site as well as hosting rail freight workshops in order to disseminate information.
consumer trains have got longer and heavier and therefore more fuel efficient. So, taking the longest heaviest consumer train with 1450 gross tonnage it only produces 19.09 grams, which is 30 per cent less than the DEFRA average figure. So if energy use is a proxy for CO2 emissions, these intermodal rail freight trains use four times less diesel than HGV’s. This table demonstrates how vital rail freight is to reducing air pollution and improving health outcomes.
Table 2 Freight Transport: Average emissions in grams per tonne- kilometre
Mode PM10 CO NOx CO2* VOC Rail
HGV 0.048 0.33 1.74 0.17* 0.15 Key:
PM10 particulate matter of less than 10 microns; CO carbon monoxide; NOx oxides of nitrogen; CO2 emissions VOC volatile organic compounds. Source - Railway Safety and Standards Board 2007 Air quality P8/ Total air pollutant emissions from diesel powered vehicles by transport modes * Source DfT Logistics Perspective Dec 2008 P8 section 10 – corrected version
So, rail freight makes sense in
every way and that is why, as an environmentalist, I am passionate about it.
•
Philippa Edmunds is Freight on Rail manager
www.freightonrail.org.uk 1 see MTRU updated report Feb 2008 Heavier lorries and their impacts on economy and environment www. Campaign for Better Transport May 2008 2 Source: Traffic statistics table TRA0104, Accident statistics Table RAS 30017, 2012 both DfT published Sep2013 3 Source International Society on Weigh in Motion
iswim.free.fr/doc/remove WP4 costbenefit analysis.pdf 4 Source FTA Logistics Report 2012 5 DfT Logistics Perspective Dec 2008 P8 section 10 6 Source Network Rail Value of Freight July 2010 . 7 Infras/IWW,2004 Facts on the competition in the European Transport Market Study for UIC Zurich and Karlsruhe 8 The Use of Weight Impact Modeliing to Derive Carbon Intensity Factors for UK Rail freight operations 2013 Nick Gazzard & Alan McKinnon for Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport CILT/INCEPT
December 2013 Page 75 0.004 0.032 0.31 0.05* 0.021
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