UK’s Government has published the rail freight transport strategy that aims for the promotion of freight transport by rail to limit road congestion and reduce transport carbon emissions.
The Rail Freight Strategy sets out UK’s vision for how rail freight can continue to grow, and how the broader logistics sector and rail industry can collaborate and innovate to help relieve pressure on the road network.
‘Rail freight makes an important contribution to our economic and environmental well-being, with benefits estimated at around £1.6 billion to the national economy every year. It generates around £1 billion from improved productivity, while around £0.6 billion is the value of the reductions in road congestion, carbon emissions and air pollutants,’ says Paul Maynard the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport.
In UK, the rail freight sector currently carries one in four of the containers coming into the ports, and has the potential to carry an even higher proportion. Each freight train removes the equivalent of up to 76 lorry journeys from our roads.
Since rail privatisation in the 1990s, the rail freight industry’s market share of freight transport has risen from around 5% to around 12%. The industry has invested significantly on its own account, in rolling stock and terminals, in order to win new customers.
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