Rail freight:agent of sustainable growth

David SpavenScottish Representative – Rail Freight Group

Transport for Regional Growth conference, Edinburgh, 5 November 2015

The economics of rail freight

• steel wheel on steel rail, on a guided track

• a segregated and signalled right of way

• low line-haul costs for long hauls and/or big volumes

Productivity & performance• up to 72 containers per train

• bulk train payloads up to 1,500t

• 98% of supermarket boxes on time.

© Tom Curry

Wider benefits of rail freight• reduced road congestion

• cuts trunk road surface damage by HGVs – eg timber

• one third of road haulage equivalent CO2

• resilience in face of long-term oil price uncertainty

• much safer than road haulage.

Rail freight in Britain

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Calendar year and quarter

Freight Tonne Km in Britain by road and rail by quarter (Indexed to 100)

Road Tkm (Base 100)

Rail Total Tkm (Base 100)

Rail Exc Coal Tkm (Base 100)

Rail intermodal Tkm (Base 100)

Source: MDS Transmodal, from ORR (rail) and DfT Stats and CSRGT (road)

© Freightliner

Key intermodal hubs in Scotland• Deep Sea intermodal – Coatbridge

• domestic intermodal:- Coatbridge

- Grangemouth

- Mossend

- Aberdeen

- Inverness.

Crucial to the Scottish economy• whisky exports

• bottled water

• supermarket supplies

• coal

• oil

• cement. © John Furnevel

Delivering rail’s potential• quality of service – and price

• route and terminal capacity

• route and terminal capability.

Capacity case study:Perth-Inverness

So when is it going to happen?

The Inter-City Express campaignintercityexpress.transformscotland.org.uk

New location opportunities

• Alloa / Girvan / Invergordon / Leven / Speyside – whisky

• Bathgate – national distribution

• Blackford – bottled water

• Corpach – timber / fish feed / aluminium

• Dundee – regional hub for Tayside

• Millerhill?

Level playing field for capability?

Rail‘s patchwork coverage

© Network Rail

© WH Davies

Key Scottish aims1. Coatbridge / Mossend / Grangemouth intermodal rail hubs:

- enhance terminal facilities and road access

2. East Coast & West Coast Main Lines:- extend overtaking loops for 775m Channel Tunnel trains

3. Enhance WCML ‘loading gauge’ clearance to match ECML

4. Enhance loading gauge & capacity north of the Central Belt.

© John Furnevel

Concluding thoughts• rail freight offers market resilience

• rail freight ticks all the Scottish Government policy boxes

• but its full potential is not being realised.

Thank you.

david@rfg.org.uk