For example, Felixstowe port, where rail already has 28% of the modal share and now has 33 daily services in and out of the port, can fill every additional rail slot which becomes available. The Felixstowe branch line upgrades currently under way should generate another ten daily slots. Further upgrades along the rail corridor to the North - supported by the industry and highlighted as a key priority in the Network Rail Market Study and the DfT Rail Freight Strategy (but as yet unfunded) - could remove 40 million lorry miles from the A14 corridor. Further targeted Government investments - such as increasing the capacity of the Strategic Freight Network between conurbations and ports - would bring step changes in the volumes of rail freight.
The importance of supportive spatial planning at national, regional and local levels cannot be overstated. The merits of safeguarding scarce rail land on the network for future potential rail use is recognised by the DfT. But there is considerable pressure on Network Rail to sell land to pay for its current enhancements programme, as well as demand for land for housing. The industry will therefore need to be proactive in protecting strategic rail land.
Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges (SRFIs) are an intrinsic element of shifting more freight to rail - they enable rail to compete in the consumer market by reducing the transhipment costs between the modes, and reduce competitive distance for rail below 150 miles. For example, Daventry SRFI removes 23 million lorry miles per year, largely from the strategic road network. Similarly, more aggregates terminals are needed in our major cities to facilitate the greater use of rail for construction projects. Congestion, air quality violations and increased attention in cycling safety are changing urban logistics policies. This means that rail can offer the long-distance trunk haulage element of consumer urban deliveries for onward transhipment into low emissions vehicles… if consolidation centres and terminals are rail-connected. The DfT needs to work with Network Rail and the industry to define what the virtual freight route (VFR) actually means and what it can deliver in practice. The VFR must promote and protect nationwide rail freight services. Currently there is a lack of clarity on how the interfaces with other routes will be managed and who will decide on enhancements, especially where there are conflicts with a geographically-based route.
Road and rail complement each other, so it is important that each mode plays to its strengths. Therefore, because of the lack of parity between the modes, the Government needs to take into account all HGVs’ external costs when examining options for rail freight costs and charges, and decisions around capacity. This is particularly relevant for those commodities where rail freight is in direct competition with road, and operators therefore have a limited ability to pass on any increase in costs to their customers. Otherwise UK plc and taxpayers will have to pick up the bill if freight is forced back onto the road network - with the resulting increase in pollution, collisions and road congestion. The Government is investigating further support for rail freight in order to compensate rail for HGV subsidies. However, missing from this debate is acknowledgement of the considerable benefits for UK plc from introducing a distance-based lorry road charging system that could make HGVs pay a fairer share of the costs they impose on society.
In the context of Brexit, there is a strong case for upgrading rail freight links to ports and conurbations in the near future, to build effective trade links. Therefore we urge the Government to set affordable track access charges and upgrade key elements of the Strategic Rail Freight Network in the next Network Rail Control Period 6 (2019-2024), to cater for suppressed demand.
