Rail Review

Freight on Rail is pleased to comment on the Rail Review

General introduction

The members are as follows:-
Rail Freight Group, EWS, Freightliner, GB Railfreight, RMT, ASLEF, TSSA and Transport 2000
 

Rail freight's role in the economy

• Rail freight removes over 300 million lorry miles from the roads every year and now has an 11% share of the UK surface freight market (road and rail)
• In 2003 rail moved 43.5 million tonnes of goods to and from UK’s ports, 65 per cent of intercontinental trade to the North of England travels by rail, and over 250,000 containers a year go by rail to and from Felixstowe.
• Coal produced 32 per cent of our electricity in 2002, and 85 per cent of it moved by rail.
• Some 85 per cent of stone used for construction in London goes by rail and nationally a fifth of all building materials are delivered by rail, as is around half of Corus’s deliveries.
• Three new retailers, Asda, Argos and Superdrug have joined rail’s list of customers within the past year. A list which already includes Safeway, M&S, Danone, Whirlpool, Rosebys, DFS and Courts.
• Automotive industry users of rail include the Ford Group, MG Rover, Volkswagen, BMW and Jaguar.
• Rail freight has attracted around £1.5 billion of investment in locomotives, wagons and facilities since 1995 from the private sector.
• Rail freight employs between 8,000 to 9,000 people in the UK

Rail freight has a key role in keeping UK Plc competitive and businesses need a proper viable alternative to road.

See RFG's Freight on Track briefing papers on www.rfg.org.uk which give a detailed account of rail freight's role in the UK economy and its critical importance both today and in the future.
 

Rail freight pays its way

• The Rail Regulator's review of track access charges confirms that rail freight does pay its way and meets its marginal costs.
• The Regulator's new regime for track access charges ensures that charges levied on freight trains fully reflect their weight and impacts on the infrastructure. This helps to encourage the use of more modern wagons which have less impact on track work.
• Government support for freight is only about 4 per cent of its support for passenger services
• Freight trains do not delay passenger services, the typical freight train matches the speed of semi-fast passenger trains and takes up less capacity than either a typical stopping or high speed passenger train. Freight trains were only responsible for four per cent of delays in 2004.
   

Issues facing road transport

• Road congestion is causing extended and less predictable journey times
• Existing driver vacancies 45,000 with the average age of drivers 43
• Working Time Directive is estimated to require another 21,000 drivers and to cost the industry an extra £1 billion per annum
• Taxation by distance and tougher emissions regulations coming into force soon.
• Digby Jones, director General of the CBI put it succinctly, "British industry is being suffocated by congestion".
• The simple statistic which shows that an average freight train can remove 50 HGVs from our roads clearly illustrates what rail freight contributes to our economy and society now and its future potential - Railtrack How we're measuring up 1999
   

The Rail Review

Freight on Rail will let others within the industry comment about general issues of structure and will concentrate on commenting on the industry’s relationship with local and regional authorities.

We believe it is vital that the following local and regional organisations are consulted as part of any regionalisation of the network.

Local Authorities
Regional Assemblies
Regional Development Agencies - important part to play through Regional Economic Strategies.

The rail freight network needs to be as accessible as possible. This includes freight only lines. Provision must be made for the right gauge requirements.
  

Devolved specification

Before any devolution of capacity utilisation it is imperative that rail freight’s position is protected.

Freight on Rail would recommend that the existing rail corridors need stronger legal protection from non-rail related developments until a full assessment is made of their potential.

We want it to be much easier for local authorities to be able to enter into partnerships with the rail freight industry to allow for commercially justified development of rail freight projects – for example, to part-fund connections, upgrades, terminals – and also to require rail freight to be provided for new industrial developments.

• If PTEs are to take on local rail services, they should be required to provide for the needs of rail freight and be given duties and powers to promote rail freight access to and through their areas
• Day-to-day operations such as train-regulation should remain in the neutral hands of Network Rail and should not be devolved to any one operator or service specifier
• The Office of the Rail Regulator should retain full jurisdiction over routes and services funded by the PTEs
• Local authorities should be able to use Local Transport Plan funds for rail projects
• Lower costs and increased efficiency in operating and maintain the network, as well as lower costs for renewals.
• The emphasis needs to be on 'managerial issues' for the right outcome for the rail industry as a whole, as well as rail freight.
• Closer co-operation between industry parties.

Freight on Rail is also concerned about proposals in the Secretary of State’s announcement to devolve responsibilities.

In paras 27 and 28 he would appear to suggest that PTEs should be the sole body representing regional interests in England. The Government “would devolve more decisions on public transport – including rail – to the Scottish Executive and Welsh Assembly Government and at regional level to the PTEs”.

Freight on Rail accepts that PTAs and PTEs have considerable experience of public transport planning within the context of the metropolitan areas but they are not the sole local authority bodies with powers and duties for public transport in the English regions.

Freight on Rail would recommend that any devolved body taking decisions at regional level should include representation from the local transport authorities in the non-met areas. Account also needs to be taken of inter-regional transport issues as well as the potential for rail freight.

It is of key importance that rail is not considered in isolation of other Government initiatives to balance growth and development across the UK and not (as present) focussing on London and the South East. For example, as part of the Sustainable Communities Plan launched in February 2003, the Deputy Prime Minister has been keen to see developments that will support regeneration through the creation of “Growth Corridors” eg

• London Stansted Cambridge Peterborough
  
• The Northern Corridor between Liverpool Manchester Leeds Hull/Newcastle

Freight on Rail would stress that a high quality rail network for freight as well as passenger services should be a pre-requisite in meeting the Plan’s objectives in each growth corridor.
 

The structure and organisational changes needed to improve overall rail performance for its customers

Local Transport Authorities have been required by the Government to set out integrated transport policies in their Local Transport Plans and Regional Transport Strategies.
Having done so they have experience considerable difficulties in progressing rail developments.

To a large extent this has been due to the absence of a single central body with the ability to see beyond the confines of the rail industry.

The creation of the Strategic Rail Authority has improved the situation considerably but its initial focus has been on a few major projects and resources have not been deployed to deal with regional and local aspirations.

The SRA has had difficulty in defining a rail freight network.

Initial plans by the SRA’s Freight Directorate envisaged a series of regional based studies to identify opportunities including the potential for new business and the provision of freight interchanges.

At a later stage the SRA narrowed the focus to major key flows eg to and from the ports of Southampton and Felixstowe.

March 2004