THE FUTURE OF FREIGHT

The first week of December has seen two important transport- related announcements emanating from the Treasury. The Eddington Transport review acknowledges the importance of rail freight both economically and environmentally and states that each transport mode should pay its full environmental costs. This policy, which accepts recommendations from the Stern Climate Change Report, recognises rail freight’s sustainability and safety record and should mean that the different modes are treated more equitably. Remember, that tonne for tonne carried, rail freight produces one tenth of the carbon dioxide, (the principal green house gas) of road transport. Road charging is a central theme of the review which again should enhance the case for rail. We will be working with our partners to pressurise the Department for Transport to ensure that a significant element of revenue raised through road charging is spent on rail enhancements. CAPACITY Eddington states that a main priority is to improve capacity and performance on the existing rail network, allowing for longer and heavier trains and removing key pinch points, especially in cities and around ports. Just visualise that an average intermodal train can remove 70 HGVs from our roads to understand rail freight’s role in alleviating road congestion. Improving connectivity to the ports must include gauge and capacity enhancements for intermodal freight which is forecast to be the fastest growing rail freight sector over the next ten years. Bear in mind that a quarter of goods imported into the UK through the major ports, are transported by rail now, and the shipping industry wants much more rail as the following quotes illustrate. “As an industry we need all the rail freight we can get” - Maersk “Rail to and from the UK's major ports is proving more reliable than road. Dedicated K&N rail services from Southampton and Felixstowe are recording 95 per cent reliability levels, compared with 'low-mid 80 per cent' for comparable road haulage”. Kuenhe & Nagel 2005 The planning system is central to economic, social and environmental prosperity which explains the importance of the Barker recommendations, announced on December 5, to reform and ‘streamline’ the planning system. Freight on Rail campaigns to identify and protect rail lands through identifying and protecting sites, lines and sidings with existing or possible future rail potential. Planning decisions are for all time, so once sites and rail alignments are gone, they are gone for ever. The Barker proposals, which were endorsed by the Chancellor during his Pre Budget Statement, would strip minister of the powers to approve major transport projects to be replaced by an independent planning commission. This measure could improve the prospects for getting planning permission for rail freight interchanges, which is vital, if freight is to be shifted from roads to rail. However, the crucial questions here are who will appoint the planning commission, what will its remit be, how will the ‘Statements of Strategic Objectives’ work and how will link to the existing spatial planning system? There are wider questions about the Barker proposals to lift some of the restrictions on car-based out of town shopping centres and streamline planning. A free-for-all helps no-one, especially rail freight. We believe that many of the problems with delay in implementing transport infrastructure can be traced back to lack of a clear national dimension to spatial strategy. A national over-arching spatial plan informs both regional, via the Regional Spatial Strategies, and local policy, via Local Development Frameworks. POLICIES Eddington’s recommendations need to be translated into government policies with funding in place so that the rail infrastructure is enhanced so that the predicted 50 per cent growth in rail freight kilometres can take place within the next ten years. We are waiting to hear whether key rail freight enhancement projects for the Southampton to the West Midlands, the Felixstowe to Nuneaton and the Gospel Oak to Barking routes and others will be awarded funding contributions from the Department for Transport. The Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report, a precursor to his Spring budget, was announced on December 6 but the industry will have to wait until the Comprehensive Spending Review next July to get the government’s overall transport spending commitments. In regional terms, Regional funding allocations (RFA) are an important mechanism for getting upgrades to the railways so Freight on Rail members will be lobbying local and regional authorities to prioritise rail projects in advance of the next RFA round in 2008. We believe that authorities should fund rail freight schemes instead of road schemes if that is the best way to reduce road congestion, reduce accidents and emissions pollution. As part of our regional programme, we are currently planning a joint rail freight event for late March 2007 with ‘The Northern Way’, which is encompassed of the three northern regions. Freight on Rail would like to hear from you if there are local threats to rail interests such as possible loss of rail lands or routes due to redevelopment or removal of protection of rail lands in local plans and Local Development Frameworks. We need you to be our eyes and ears locally as once a rail site or route is gone, it is gone for ever and is lost to society. We can advise on planning policy and legal precedents which may be relevant to save your local sites and routes and write to the relevant authorities. Contact Philippa Edmunds 020 8241 9982:Philippa@freightonrail.org.uk Members are - EWS, Freightliner, Rail Freight Group, RMT, TSSA, ASLEF, AMICUS, Network Rail and Transport 2000. RMTnews :: january 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 18 THE FUTURE OF FREIGHT Philippa Edmunds of Freight on Rail campaign looks at important developments in the fight to get freight off the roads and onto rail