SUPPORT FREIGHT ON RAIL? END RAIL CUTS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january/february 2024 :: RMTnews 19 The Department for Transport’s long-awaited rail freight growth target pledging to increase rail freight by “at least 75 per cent by 2050” is profoundly at odds with its rail cuts agenda, RMT has said. In his introduction in support of these pledges, Transport Secretary Mark Harper MP points out that a growth in rail freight would improve the environment as a tonne of freight moved by rail produces around a quarter of the carbon emissions that it would if it were moved by road. One train could replace up to 129 heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), easing congestion on our roads. Yet his same government has told Network Rail to cut £1.2 billion from its funding for railway renewals for the next five-year funding control period 7 (CP7) from 2024 to 2029. As highlighted elsewhere in this magazine these cuts include abandoning track renewals for at least the next five years and the permanent loss of highly specialised, skilled jobs and equipment while reports of broken rails on aging infrastructure rockets (see page 16, 17). RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the 2050 target for rail freight growth target meant nothing if at the same time the government was cutting vital rail infrastructure projects such as the Northern leg of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse rail which would provide the desperately needed extra capacity. “We have a government that simply does not understand the importance of investing in our railways, in rail freight and creating the mode-shift we need. “This government seems hell bent on overseeing the managed decline of our railway by flogging the dead horse of a fragmented privatised railway, whilst making massive cuts to infrastructure funding that is jeopardising safety and performance,” he said. f p f c a a s T H g i t p t SUPPORT FREIGHT ON RAIL? END RAIL CUTS RMT argues that the government’s ambitious rail freight growth targets cannot be met