Freight put on the right track in UK

Date: 29/10/1998

By Chris Johnstone

RAIL freight is on a roll in the UK, tempting investors to gamble billions in a head-to-head battle with trucking.

And, unlike their European counterparts, the new players are not looking to the government for any favours.

The turn around in a sector which was once as inefficient and unprofit-able as continental European railways is largely due to the fact that freight traffic is entirely in private hands. In addition most of it is accounted for by a single foreign company, Wisconsin Central Transportation, which acquired other state-owned railways around the world before moving into the UK.

The US firm's success has prompted a complete rethink on rail freight in the UK, which could result in a mass exodus of long-haul European-bound cargo from the roads over the coming decade.

Central Railway, a consortium which includes the giant Canadian Pacific rail-to-hotels conglomerate, has dusted off an ambitious 6-billion-ecu plan for a 650-kilometre freight track from Liverpool, via the Channel Tunnel, to Lille. A second spur would run from the northern English industrial city of Bradford to the French hub.

Central Railway's original plan for a track from Birmingham to the Channel Tunnel was rejected by the former Conservative government in 1996. But the company reckons parliament will respond positively when it presents its new proposal next spring.

Central Railway claims its network, using a combination of abandoned and existing tracks, will be carrying 30 million tons of freight within two years of its planned opening in 2006. It is confident of taking around 40&percent; of the cargoes which currently go by truck.

Meanwhile, Railtrack, the privatised owner of the UK's rail network, will unveil plans next month to modify its tracks to carry trailers and even US-style double-stacked containers.