This time last year, it seemed that rail freight was on a roll, if you’ll forgive the pun. Everywhere we looked, we found people keen to talk to us about the possibility of using rail to move their goods around the country. With the emphasis on sustainability and the green economy, rail seemed an obvious […]
Although the railways are often seen as a Victorian invention, the first commercial railways began under the reign of William IV. Indeed, it was his Consort, Queen Adelaide, who had the first Royal Railway carriage built for her. Adelaide, famously, gave her name to the eponymous city in Australia but, less well known is the […]
The Scottish High-Level Output Statement (SHLOS) was published on 3 Feb 2023 and with it set out what the rail industry is to achieve during the period for Control Period 7 (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2029). Scottish Ministers have tasked Network Rail once again to keep a focus on rail freight in its […]
Earlier this week, Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper broke cover and made his first major speech on rail. Addressing a packed room he confirmed his commitment to rail reform and to the creation of Great British Railways as an integrated guiding mind for UK rail. Unlike some of his political counterparts, Harper comes […]
Have you made any new year’s resolutions? For me, aside from the usual ‘stop swearing’ (already failed) and dieting (pending!), this is the year I am going to tackle the backlog of reading and jigsaws that I really want to do but never make time for. Can the railways make resolutions? I don’t know but […]
By Martin Bignell, Scottish and Northern Representative, RFG. The railways industry and Network Rail is a huge ‘industrial complex’ operating within myriad rules and regulations born of decades of learning and convention, framed and codified at Privatisation and monitored and managed from the perspectives of safety, financial control and regulatory fairness. Innovation and progress […]
By Colin Duke, Head of Sales at Argent Energy First of all, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Colin Duke. I work at Argent Energy, and I am delighted that Argent have recently become members of RFG. If you haven’t heard of us, we’re the UK’s leading refiner of biodiesel produced from […]
There’s been something of a shift in how rail freight is presented that increasingly brings joy, interest and positive messaging to the wider world about who and what is moving around the network. At a time when some of the creative branding applied to passenger rolling stock appears to be being neutered to standard pale […]
As Liz Truss moves her belongings into No 10, she will no doubt be focussing on the priorities for her new Government. It seems unlikely that rail freight will be one of them, but how she chooses to tackle some of the big issues currently facing the country will be vital to the success of […]
