Driving the future of freight through innovation
W
e have all experienced a seismic societal shift in the past few years. From the way we travel, to the integration of remote working and a shift in the way in which we shop, moving away from bricks and mortar to e-commerce models, there is no denying that we live vastly different lives to those of five years ago. Whilst teams are returning to the office, more people are working from home which means less commuter travel. More people are buying goods online, which means more items need transporting. This means that for the rail industry there is the potential to run more freight trains and promote modal shift – i.e., place more containers onto trains. This benefits the UK by removing heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) from our already congested road network, reducing the carbon impact of transporting container freight by road, and increasing the profitability of the railway. Promoting modal shift and a greener future Rail freight contributes almost £2.5bn to the economy, playing a big part in reducing congestion and emissions and is more environmentally friendly than road. 20 | Inside Rail Freight | December 2022
The aim is that this will provide Network Rail and freight operators with a more realistic view of operations and available capacity According to the Rail Delivery Group, every tonne of freight transported by rail produces 76% less emissions compared to road and each freight train removes 76 lorries from our roads. This in turn reduces carbon emissions and congestion, freeing up capacity across the transport network and improving air quality. The green benefits of rail freight are being driven heavily by the Department for Transport (DfT) with incentive schemes such as Modal Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) - a £20m grant, which freight carriers can bid for a share of to support the modal shift to rail. Advertorial
However, despite the widescale use of MSRS, finding new freight routes for additional trains can be challenging due to a multitude of factors, including: Road haulage is seen as easier and more accessible than rail freight, especially at short notice, for short journeys and for single containers. Highways are less regulated with no significant barriers to commercial participation, and therefore are free to use the latest technologies to develop and evolve solutions at a faster pace. Railway planning systems and processes limit the availability and visibility of freight paths resulting in under-utilisation of network capacity. Freight trains that already run on the network are not always full, which promotes the view that there is no demand for using rail as a viable freight option. The network appears congested because of the way freight timetabling works, i.e., there is no incentive to remove paths that are not going to be used, and no penalty for not doing so.
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