Rail freight benefits confirmed by new report

Rail freight delivers benefits worth over £1.7bn per year to the UK economy according to a new report published today (7 June 2018) by Rail Delivery Group.  The benefits, which arise through productivity gains to freight customers and environmental gains to society, are distributed across the country with the North of England, Midlands and Scotland seeing the highest levels.

Welcoming the report, Maggie Simpson, RFG Executive Director, said: “This work by the Rail Delivery Group highlights the very significant benefits that rail freight is providing to the UK each year, at over £60 for each and every household.  Working together the rail freight industry and its customers are continuing to invest and develop new services to further increase these benefits.”

Separately the Office of Rail and Road have confirmed that over the year to April 2018, construction and international rail freight were the strongest performing sectors, with 1.5% and 13% growth respectively.  This was despite an overall reduction of 1.7% with coal falling another 13% over the year.

Maggie added: “Although the headline results are disappointing we are pleased to see the continued growth in construction traffic, driven an increased use of rail in support of UK infrastructure including housebuilding, new roads and major projects.   Over the coming year we are also expecting to see renewed growth in intermodal, with new terminals opening such as iPort at Doncaster and services starting from Port of Liverpool and elsewhere.”

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Rail Delivery Group report can be found here https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/about-us/publications.html?task=file.download&id=469774087

Office of Rail and Road publication can be found here https://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/27919/freight-rail-usage-2017-18-quarter-4.pdf