Rail plan benefits British ports
Britain’s Strategic Rail Authority this week called for improved rail links to the main container ports of Felixstowe and Southampton as part of a $5.8 billion investment program to shift traffic from trucks to rails.
The government agency said the program would improve the status of freight so that it no longer has lower priority than passenger services.
Billed as a “blueprint for growth,” the plan is aimed at boosting capacity and improving reliablily in order to meet the government’s targeted 80% increase in rail freight in 10 years.This will take rail’s share of the freight market from between 6% and 7% to 10%. Rail holds a 20% market share in some contiental Europe countries.
If the plan succeeds, it will take more than 500 million truck-miles off the roads every year by 2010, the SRA said.
The plan calls for improvements of routes linking Felixstowe and Southampton to the industrial West Midlands, northwest England and around London; improved secondary routes to divert freight trains if there are delays on the key cargo routes; and construction of up to four new freight terminals near London and two in the northwest.
The SRA recommended increased subsidies for specific contracts and support for intermodal services competing with trucking.
The agency conceded that rail freight’s reputation with shippers has suffered following the severe disruption and delays during the past six months caused by a nationwide repair program triggered by a fatal crash north of London last October that was blamed on a broken rail.
Generous tax breaks for truckers that followed European-wide blockades last September also aggravated rail freight’s problems, the SRA said.
