Rail keeps rolling, despite challenging year

But the truth is that behind the headlines there have been several encouraging developments in the sector throughout the last year.

RAIL FREIGHT’S VITAL ROLE RECOGNISED IN GOVERNMENT PLAN

More than 1.5 billion tonnes of goods are transported into and around the UK each year, with the freight sector adding £127 billion annually to the economy. In June 2022, government recognised the importance of freight when it published the Future of Freight: a long-term plan; the first ever cross-modal and cross-government plan for the UK freight transport sector that highlighted the need for a national freight network. The overall vision of the plan is a freight and logistics sector that is cost-efficient, reliable, resilient, environmentally sustainable and valued by society.

Alexandra Herdman, Senior Policy Manager, Logistics UK, said: “An encouraging step forward for the sector, the government’s Future of Freight plan will also improve understanding of the domestic freight network to support better decision-making in government and industry and maximise opportunities for modal shift. Moving forwards, it is imperative that this plan is implemented in the correct way to ensure that a multimodal approach to transport is taken. To do this, it is essential that government communicates efficiently with the freight sector, and Logistics UK looks forward to continuing with these discussions in 2023.”

SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS MADE ON HS2 PROJECT

Much progress has also been made across the HS2 project throughout the past 12 months, including the completion of the first section of the UK’s longest viaduct. The largest infrastructure project in Europe, once complete it will link Manchester, Birmingham and London – three of the UK’s biggest cities – via a high-speed rail network. Despite some concerns from politicians regarding public funding following the latest Autumn Budget and current economic crisis, this is a crucial project for the levelling up agenda. As of October 2022, the project supports over 29,000 jobs and early works in London delivered £115m of social value to local communities. Additionally, 61% of contracts are with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), equating to over 1,800,000 SMEs in the HS2 supply chain.

PROGRESS BALANCED BY CHALLENGES AND DELAYS

While 2022 saw much progress in rail, it saw its fair share of challenges too. In May 2021, the Great British Railways: The Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail was published and included the decision to establish Great British Railways (GBR). Unfortunately, owing to a lack of parliamentary time, the Transport Bill – which formally included the creation of GBR – has now been delayed, with former Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan explaining the Department for Transport (DfT) has lost the opportunity to bring it forward in this session of Parliament.

Despite this, in following Parliamentary questions, government has confirmed that much of the work of GBR can still be advanced without legislation and in the view of Logistics UK, GBR must continue on its trajectory in 2023 and become a fully established office.

KEEPING RAIL FREIGHT HIGH ON THE AGENDA

“It is imperative freight remains high on the political agenda in the coming year and does not become the poor relation of passenger rail,” Herdman said, “One key challenge is timetable capacity – even with reduced passenger numbers, securing timetable slots for freight is difficult – as well as operational considerations at passenger stations. In due course, new legislation must ensure this protection for rail freight.”

The reason for this is two-fold: firstly, to support environmental and congestion goals and secondly, to unlock the economic benefits that partnership with private sector investors in rail freight can deliver.

INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS ARE VITAL

Infrastructure improvements to rail in 2023 are much needed. These include the proposal to upgrade the railway in the Ely area to address significant bottlenecks on the important route from the Port of Felixstowe to the Midlands and beyond. Track electrification must be a key consideration of infrastructure improvements. While rail only produces 1.5% of all transport emissions each year, only 38% of GB’s rail network is electrified. Whilst it is unlikely the whole network will be electrified before 2050, further innovations in battery electric and hydrogen fuel cells show promise for decarbonising rail.

“Looking ahead, 2023 must be the year for ambitious rail freight growth to be cemented in legislation,” Herdman concludes, “With rail freight stagnating over recent years, the sector needs certainty; changing government priorities and postponed policies must not delay this. Logistics UK is looking forward to working with members and government in the coming year to ensure rail freight is at the top of the agenda.”

*www.logistics.org.uk/rail

Published On: 15/12/2022 16:00:58

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