The European Commission was expected Wednesday to formally charge that 11 countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy, missed the European Union’s deadline to open rail freight services to competition. The move follows an earlier unofficial warning.
Read MoreMinisters came under pressure to stop Royal Mail’s withdrawal from the railways yesterday, after a document emerged which suggested that the organisation could have saved half its postal trains. To the dismay of rail unions and environmentalists, the government-owned company announced last month that it intended to carry all letters, parcels and postcards by lorry or aircraft, in an effort to save pounds 90m a year. The controversial decision ended a 173-year tradition of “night mail” trains. However, an Australian company which took part in Royal Mail’s review of its distribution network has revealed that the organisation could have reached its target of pounds 90m cost savings by axing only 50% of its rail services. Opcom, a Queensland-based IT firm, provided a specialist logistics software package, Planz, which was central to Royal Mail’s reorganisation.
Read MoreThe Royal Mail’s decision to transfer its freight from rail to road was condemned on all sides today with a Commons call to “keep the mail on the rail”.
Labour’s Alan Simpson (Nottingham S) led the question time attack, warning the public viewed the move as “catastrophically irresponsible”.
Read MoreIn future more parcel and express items will be sent by rail. Both companies are expecting to reactivate the route from Cologne, Germay, to Berlin at the beginning of the coming year. Other routes are being planned. The toll for lorries due to come into effect on 1 September and the increasing number of items are the basis for this co-operation decision. In doing so the Parcel InterCity network, currently covering the routes Hamburg/Hanover to Munich/Nuremberg, will be considerably extended. The destinations will be connected during the night with each other by trains, which, at up to 160 km/h, travel faster than any lorry.
Read MoreRoyal Mail’s decision to stop using rail from next March could land the company in court. UK rail freight operator EWS provides train services to Royal Mail under a 10-year contract that runs to September 2006. EWS planning director Graham Smith told IFW that although the company did not want to go down the legal route, Royal Mail had “a genuine commitment to honour this agreement”. EWS operates 49 trains a day for Royal Mail across the UK rail network, hauling 20m items, including 25% of all firstclass mail. The traffic represents 10% of EWS’s business.
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