Rail freight volumes fall - but the decline slows

The total volume of rail freight moved in Britain in 2017-18 fell by 1.7% from the previous 12-month period, to 17 billion tonnekilometres.

The figures were revealed in the latest statistics released by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) on June 7. It is the lowest total since the late 1990s, although still higher than in the mid-1990s.

The total amount of freight lifted also fell, by 5.6% to 75 million tonnes, as did the number of freight train movements (down 3.5% to 216,000, the lowest since 2003-04).

Domestic intermodal now represents the biggest freight traffic sector, accounting for 40% of the total, followed by construction 25%, metals 8%, coal 7%, petroleum 6%, international 3% and other goods 10%.

However, domestic intermodal traffic fell by 1.4% to 6.7 billion net tonne-km. Metals dropped by 5.4% to 1.4 billion net tonne-km, oil and petroleum were down 5% to 1.1 billion net tonne-km, and other goods by 0.3% to 1.7 billion net tonne-km. Increases were recorded by international traffic (12.7% compared with the previous year) and construction (up 1.5%).

In the fourth quarter of 2017-18 (Q4, 2017-18, January to March), only international traffic recorded an increase - it rose by 23% to 140 million net tonne-km, with all other sectors recording falls in volume.

The ORR reports that lower- than-average temperatures in the quarter were partly responsible, with particularly poor weather in late February and early March causing delays and cancellations. The Freight Delivery Metric, which measures punctuality of freight trains, was also affected in this quarter, falling by 2.1 percentage points to 92% compared with the corresponding three-month period in 2016-17.

In terms of the tonnage of freight lifted, the drop to 75 million tonnes was largely driven by the continued decline in coal traffic, which recorded a figure of just 9.6 million tonnes in 2017-18 (a fall of 19.6% on the previous year, and the lowest since the current time series began in 198283).

In Q4 2017-18, the freight delay per 100 train-km rose by 12.8% to 12.3 minutes compared with the corresponding period in 2016-17, with normalised freight delay for

the whole of 2017-18 rising by 12.3% to 12.1 minutes.

DB Cargo carried the most freight in Q4 2017-18 - 3.2 billion tonne-km, but a fall of 18% on the corresponding period a year before. Freightliner recorded a 3% increase to 2.2 billion tonne-km, and GB Railfreight a 12% rise to 1.5 billion tonne-km.

Freightliner Heavy Haul suffered a 13% decline in business to 1.5 billion tonne-km, and Direct Rail Services recorded a 1% drop to 0.3 billion tonne-km, while Colas Freight enjoyed a 51% rise in traffic, also to 0.3 billion tonne-km.

In terms of market share, rail’s share of the freight market fell by one percentage point in 2016 (the last full year for which figures are available) to 4.9%, against a 0.7 percentage point rise in Heavy Goods Vehicle Traffic.