Invest in Scottish freight to boost UK’s economic recovery
We must not hold back on investment in the railway because of Coronavirus. This is important for the freight as well as the passenger railway.
The present situation should allow Government to be more proactive in encouraging modal shift of freight from road to rail, in answer to the declared climate emergency. Terminals, line capacity and electrification all require attention.
The talk of ‘levelling up’ rail investment to regions such as the North in England is welcome and long overdue.
Levelling up is needed in Scotland also, to complete double tracking and electrification to all lines between Scotland’s seven cities.
The Highland Main Line (HML) between Perth and Inverness and the Aberdeen to Inverness (A2I) line remain largely single track (with passing places, to use a road analogy).
Work is ongoing to restart timber and whisky-related traffic from and to Elgin and Keith on the A2I line.
At present, whisky has to go by road to Central Belt terminals for onward rail freight transmission to the continent. When you consider that whisky is one of the UK’s top exports, a small proportion of the gain to the Treasury could surely be invested in the terminals and dynamic loops required to recapture that traffic to rail?
The 18-mile single-track section between Elgin and Keith is the real Achilles heel for that line, preventing more services from running.
Following on from the recent Aberdeen to Inverurie redoubling, there are still seven single-track sections ending with the 15 miles from Nairn to Inverness.
The Highland Main Line has some important freight flows of groceries and cement and (until relatively recently) oil and parcels, but there is scope for more. It is limited by ten single-track sections, two of which are each 13 miles long.
Late running on either of these lines causes knock-on effects to other trains waiting in the loops, and the consequential effects can last all day. Running a mix of passenger and freight trains on the HML at different speeds adds to the timetable problems.
Electrification is well known for ‘ironing out hills’, such as can be seen these days at Shap and Beattock for both passenger and freight trains.
It is a Scottish Government aspiration as well as a climate emergency imperative before 2035. Time must not be lost by pausing capacity investment now.