Has UK rail been left behind?

It’s a big world out there, and although investment money always seems tight, UK rail seems to have been left at the starting blocks.

Consider these staggering freight growth statistics: The total volumes of world freight movement went up by 4,100% between 1950 and 2010. The total value of cargoes also rose by 300%.

Almost two-thirds of the UK’s trading business is import and export, much higher than the world average. Yet rail’s share of the market is in single figures.

Freight provides employment within more than 200,000 privately owned companies, and it is not government money that goes into most rail terminals and equipment, ports, airports and trucks. Some 95% of our exports go by sea, which offers UK rail great potential to grow its container business.