Construction traffic boosts recovering freight figures
LATEST statistics from the
Office of Rail and Road (ORR) suggest freight traffic is starting to recover from the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Total freight moved in the third quarter (Q3) of 2020/21 was up by 2.1% compared with the same period 2019/20, to 4.07 billlion tonne-km (ntkm), while total freight lifted increased by 12% to 17.8m tonnes. Although freight train kilometres fell by 1.4% in the same period, this is thought to be a result of operators running longer and heavier trains during lockdown, requiring fewer trains to move the same tonnage.
The construction sector saw a significant increase, partly attributable to the traffic now being generated by HS2 civil engineering projects. Compared with the same period in 2019/20, construction volumes rose by 0.07bn ntkm with the sector maintaining second place overall, with a 28% share of the market.
Intermodal traffic remains the largest sector, with 42% of the overall total in Q3 2020/21, seeing a 2.3% increase in Q3.
Metals traffic saw a 12.3% increase in the same period, possibly as a result of longer steel trains being operated.
With a reduced passenger timetable operating during the pandemic, delays to freight trains were cut by 24%, to 9.85 minutes per 100km and 94.7% of freight trains arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time – the best performance since records began in 2007/08.
Coal traffic dropped by 36.6% compared to Q3 2019/20 and now represents just 1% of total traffic as the UK continues its move towards greener fuels for power generation. Oil/petroleum volumes fell by 17.6% due to the reduction in air travel and lower demand for aviation fuel while international freight via the Channel Tunnel also suffered a drop of 16.1% due to the pandemic, which led to a border closure in December 2020 and delays caused by Covid testing.