Coal at record low as construction traffic rises

A 5% rise in construction traffic in the first quarter of 2019-20 helped to offset the continued decline in the amount of coal carried on Britain’s railways.

Coal volumes dropped by 19% compared with the corresponding quarter in 2018-19, to 1.9 million tonnes - the lowest figure on record, according to the latest statistics published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).

The data, released on September 26, showed a 1% year-on-year decline in tonnekilometres carried on Britain’s railways, with coal traffic falling by 53% to 0.12 billion net tonne kilometres (ntkm).

Construction traffic increased to 1.21 billion, with rises in domestic intermodal, international and other traffic also helping to counter the decline in coal traffic, although metals fell by 7% to 0.36bn ntkm, and oil and petroleum by 3% to 0.25bn ntkm.

The volume of freight lifted fell by 3% year on year to 18.5 million tonnes.

Domestic intermodal is now the most important flow on the freight network, accounting for 40% of all freight moved, followed by construction traffic at 28%. From being the dominant flow in the past, coal now accounts for just 3% of freight moved.

Punctuality of freight trains increased by 1.6 percentage points in Q1 2019-20 compared with the year before, rising to 95.3% of trains arriving at their destination within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival time. The quarterly moving annual average also rose, by 1pp to 94.2%.

The ORR also measures freight delays per 100km, and its statistics show that there was a 19% reduction to 9.1 minutes compared with Q1 2018-19. This is the lowest figure on record.

DB Cargo remains the dominant operator, running 3.2 million freight train kilometres, although this fell by 2% year on year. Freightliner suffered a 4% drop to 2.2 million, but GB Railfreight increased its traffic by 13% to 1.8 million.

Direct Rail Services also enjoyed an increase in business, with a rise of 14% to 0.4 million. Freightliner Heavy Haul’s freight train kilometres dropped by 9% to 0.6 million, and Colas Freight by 15% to 0.2 million.