Rail freight: we need more ambition

An excellent piece by David Clough (Rail freight: an ambition vacuum, RAIL 957).

Nick Gallop’s article on rail freight innovation in the same issue showed what had been taking place, in terms of ideas, earlier on in the privatised freight railway.

Some of the ideas were not great or successful. Others were morphed into today’s rail freight portfolio. But the point is that there were ideas and greater ambition then.

This year, in fairness, ‘hats off’ to GB Railfreight for trialling a battery shunting locomotive and to Rail Operations Group for trying to get into high-speed parcels, but there is precious little else.

The paragraphs concerning MSRS (Modal Shift Revenue Support) grant aid worth over £20 million per annum were spot on. The two ‘Ss’ in MSRS - Shift and Support - hardly apply today.

Freight that has moved by rail for ten years or more still receiving grant aid is wrong. The aim of MSRS is to ‘shift’ new freight onto rail, and there are numbers of potential new-torail customers who want to try modern rail freight but who can’t because the budget is often already allocated. Better to call this MRS - Modal Revenue Subsidy!

The Channel Tunnel and the lack of appetite is also disappointing. I am aware that fires, migrants and pricing have all played a part in the lack of nonshuttle freight traffic through the Channel Tunnel. But there is appetite for such services and action that could be taken to secure more Eastbound freight to Europe - still our largest trading partner.

A number of non-freight organisations and people soldier on with ideas and suggestions, but where is the ambition? Especially at a time when there has never been more support from across the entire spectrum for rail freight.

David Cross, Brentwood