At the trainload end of things DB Schenker continues to operate daily services for Royal Mail between London, Warrington, Glasgow and Newcastle. In parallel, Colas Rail has proven the ability of the freight operators to deliver trains into central London overnight, despite efforts to try and close down any such service establishing a foothold prior to Euston being rebuilt for HS2 (which, like HS1 did before it, continues to deny the possibility of freight running on it and paying money for the privilege).
In terms of pushing things up the speed curve, the impending arrival of the Hitachi IEP trains will put out to pasture a large number of HST sets, whose 125mph capabilities did as much to bring passengers back to the railway as we expect them to now do for an equally untapped section of the freight market.
A proven design, with high performance, dual power car traction contingency and still more life left in it, is an exciting prospect, much as how the alternative (‘razor blades’ or heritage use) isn’t!
In due course the first-generation Eurostars - along with Voyagers, Meridians and Adelantes - will similarly be kicking their heels as newer stock comes in. Airlines don’t send all their planes straight off to the scrapyard as soon as their frontline passenger days are over, when there’s scope to ‘repurpose’ them for a second career in the cargo sector. Granted there will undoubtedly be vehicle acceptance challenges and possibly even regulatory ones, too, but our discussions to date indicate a willingness from DfT across the railway industry to determine how it can work, rather than debate if it can work. The jigsaw is thus very slowly turning into a picture, having started with all the pieces around the edges that are easiest to find. Beyond finding customers, operators and rolling stock, the network of interchanges potentially extends across a large part of the existing station portfolio, alongside proposals for a major logistics hub in the Midlands offering purpose-built facilities for handling high-speed freight trains.
For those manufacturers, retailers and logistics companies who then choose to locate on site, a National Distribution Centre served by high-speed trains on Class 1 paths will be able to reach anywhere south of Glasgow within four hours (and even the Far North within eight hours), and be into central London within the hour - journey times that would be unheard of in an articulated lorry.
Having most of your stock located centrally would then reduce the need to hold further supplies at multiple regional and/or local distribution centres and stores, further enabling ‘lean’ logistics to be achieved. Higher transport costs are then offset by savings in distribution floor space and stock markdowns, a decision that in the 1990s prompted Nike to scrap a network of over 40 warehouses across Europe and replace it with a single European distribution centre.
The same opportunity presents itself now, in a way that only rail can realistically deliver. And for those muttering about “so what happens when the rail network goes down”, listen to the traffic news every day to see how well the road network performs these days!
To be clear, the premium freight market is not about to deliver ten million tonnes of new business to make good the loss of coal traffic. Nor does it require the freight operators to scrap all their rolling stock and push out brand new fleets of shiny new high-speed kit.
But with the aid of a dozen or so sets of converted first-generation high-speed passenger stock, along with suitably converted industry mindsets, the rail freight industry can tap into a more lucrative sector of the emerging online market.
In providing a service that no other form of surface transport can match, as the core of a new type of supply chain (‘internetists’ would call this ‘disruptive’, in a good way), so the loss of revenue from high-tonnage commodities such as coal will be replaced by smaller volumes of higher-yielding premium deliveries.
Policymakers will also latch onto the ability of such services to reduce the number and size of lorries needed to deliver goods (and emissions) into city centres. In parallel, TOCs can in turn benefit from accommodating small-volume shipments from which to extract further revenue from services (opening the door to mixed traffic services on peripheral/secondary routes), and be provided with a solution for handling customer luggage.
So there’s plenty of room in this new space for FOCs, TOCs, the railway supply chain and even intermediary service providers. It’s therefore pleasing to be able to conclude that we’re making progress on all fronts, with the expansion of the parcel-load services across a growing number of TOCs, while work continues with the rail industry to source suitable displaced traction and rolling stock and line up the necessary skills to convert them for a bright new future. You’re welcome to join us!
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