Rail freight traffic falls as the coal collapse continues

The volume of rail freight moved between October and December 2017 fell by 3% to 4.26 billion net tonne-kilometres (ntkm), according to the latest Office of Rail and Road (ORR) latest statistics on March 1.

While construction and international traffic reported gains of 5% and 3% respectively, the volume of coal carried further collapsed by 21% to 0.37 million ntkm. Metals fell by 11% to 0.33 million ntkm, oil and petroleum 6% to 0.28 million ntkm, other by 8% to 0.39 million ntkm, and domestic intermodal 1% to 1.70 billion ntkm.

Total freight lifted in the quarter was 18.8 million tonnes, a fall of 10% compared with the corresponding quarter in 2016, and the lowest for the quarter recorded since the start of the ORR’s time series in 1996-97.

Total freight train kilometres (train-km) run was 8 million, a reduction of 450,000 (5%) compared with a year before and the lowest recorded for the quarter since that time series started in 2010-11.

DB Cargo remains Britain’s biggest rail freight operator, running 3.2 million train-km, although it suffered an 18% fall compared with a year before.

Freightliner recorded an 8% increase to 2.3 million train-km, and GB Railfreight a 12% rise to 1.5 million. Freightliner Heavy Haul may have been affected by the continuing fall in coal traffic, as its train-km dropped by 26% to 0.6 million.

Direct Rail Services was stable at 0.4 million train-km, while Colas Railfreight soared by 62% to 0.3 million train-km. The other freight operator, Devon and Cornwall Railways, doubled its train-km on a rounded basis, from 0.01 million to 0.02 million.

Freight delays were 14.3 minutes per 100 train-km in the third quarter of 2017-18, a 17% increase on the year before and the highest quarterly normalised delay since the same period in 2014-15.