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Issue 8 2020 - Freight Business Journal


///RAIL FREIGHT


Freight industry on the right lines


Aſt er decades of stagnation and uncertainty, rail freight is once again becoming a major force in freight. The green agenda, road congestion and truck driver shortages are all prompting the industry to reconsider letting the train take the strain.


Rail freight rides out a stormy year


The market in the UK has been plunged into turmoil by the Covid crisis and associated lockdowns but there are grounds for optimism, says director general of the Rail Freight Group, Maggie Simpson. Aſt er a very strong start


to


2020 - March was a record month for construction material on rail – most traffi cs dipped as the lockdown restrictions were imposed, but then recovered again, to a greater or lesser extent. “Construction did a bit of a V-shape; it ceased but then restarted as building sites resumed, and it was also boosted by the start of building of the HS2 high speed rail link,” Simpson recalled. “Intermodal traffi c did go soſt for a time and at one stage lost a third of its trains as UK and global demand was all over the place, but is back to around 95% of its former level. Domestic intermodal traffi c also did really well.” She adds: “I think that rail is


holding its own in a uniquely challenging year – and in fact, I believe the freight industry in all its modes has shown itself in a good light. The industry has been largely self-supporting and hasn’t had to have huge amounts of


public money thrown at it – and rail has absolutely played its part in that.” There are some longer-term


concerns. The current revival in construction traffi c is partly due to projects being fi nished off ; any sustained recovery will depend on new schemes being started next year. Intermodal traffi c is dependent entirely on consumer demand recovering and being maintained. However,


rail’s market share


has held up well during the crisis, and customers have stayed loyal, says Simpson. The green agenda is still important and has not been defl ected by the pandemic. Rail passenger traffi c has


undoubtedly been badly hit and could take a while to recover. But there could be something of a silver lining for the freight sector, as fewer passenger trains could free up more paths for freight on what was, until March, a very crowded network. “I certainly hope that there could be scope for that,” says Simpson. “In fact, we have already had some success in making trains longer. Freightliner, for example, has been running some 775 metre long (the current maximum train length) intermodal trains out of


Southampton and there have also been longer trains out of the Daventry terminal.” A few biomass trains from


the port of Liverpool to the East Yorkshire power stations have been able to use the direct transpennine route during the Covid lull in passenger traffi c, instead of the long detour normally necessary because of


Rail has in the past been thought of as only for long distances, of 200 miles or more, but iPort managing director, Steve Freeman, plans to turn that idea on its head. The Doncaster terminal operator is currently talking to ABP about a shuttle service to and from the Humber ports, just 40 miles or so, which it hopes to get running next year.


This would operate three


the shortage of paths on the direct route, cutting journey times from seven to four hours. One rail project that remains


on track is the HS2 scheme to build a new high speed passenger rail line, initially from London to Birmingham and then, in stages, to north of Crewe. This could help the freight industry by taking fast passenger trains off the existing network, although many services would only use the high speed line for part of their journey and would need to regain the ‘classic’ network. If high speed passenger


times a day, using the same set of wagons, off ering a similar level of service to road haulage, but with rail’s much lower carbon footprint. The Doncaster terminal


already sends a train three times a week to Teesside, a distance of just 90 miles, again proving that rail isn’t just for long hauls. Providing a viable rail service on these sort of distances could really help to boost rail freight and bring new customers. “Rail was in the past seen as


expensive and cumbersome, but we’re trying to change that,”


states Freeman. There are new pressures on road haulage such as the driver shortage and concerns over carbon footprints that could return more freight to rail in future, Freeman believes. Every freight train takes up to 60-70 long distance trucks off the road. The iPort terminal opened


on the outskirts of Doncaster in February 2018 and quickly built up to six trains a day, with services to and from Felixstowe, Southampton, Teesport and Daventry. It recently added a sixth daily


train, to and from Felixstowe service, bringing the terminal back up to pre-pandemic service levels. The new overnight service


will operate six days a week and brings the number of daily services between iPort Rail and the port up to three. As ports around the country


have seen an uptick in activity as the volume of containers coming


into the UK increases, iPort Rail has also been helping alleviate some of the pressure by storing more containers on site, where there is storage capacity for 1,500 teu.


iPort Rail is also in an advanced


stage of its Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) status application, which will allow the terminal to process customs on site aſt er the Brexit transition period ends. Plans to build a phase 2 have been delayed slightly by the Covid crisis, but Freeman hopes that this will get under way next year, increasing capacity by up to around 14 trains a day, as well as lengthening tracks and improving the fl ow of freight through the site. It will also increase storage at the site to around 3,500teu. There are also plans for a Border Customs point, drawing on the government’s port infrastructure funding, which will encourage freight to switch to inland terminals and away from busy ferry routes aſt er Brexit.


travel and hence the number of trains is stimulated by HS2, that could actually mean fewer, not more paths on the classic


network north of Birmingham and would have to be carefully managed, in Simpson’s opinion. However, this is for the future


and understanding likely


passenger demand is very diffi cult at the moment, she points out.


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