Maggie has been with the Rail Freight Group for many years and has spoken to us on several occasions before. This time, she provided a valuable and interesting insight as to how Rail Freight will be affected by the creation of ‘Great British Railways’.
The Rail Freight Group has been deeply involved in the creation and review of the legislation that will underpin the operation of the rail network once GBR starts in earnest – currently forecast to be October 2027. Much of GBR involves anticipated improvements to passenger services through the combining of the infrastructure, rolling stock and passenger operations into some 14 single ‘one-stop-shop’ regional organisations. However, freight will not be nationalised and rail-freight operators will need to deal with this change in organisation. The way that freight paths will be allocated is changing and is causing concern particularly as to what happens when there are delays. Will the ‘Greater Anglia’ signalman prioritise ‘Greater Anglia’ passenger trains over other operators including freight? Looking into a number of different areas of the legislation, Maggie raised various such questions to which, as yet, there are no real clear answers.
One positive point to come out of the detailed proposals is a commitment by the Government to grow rail freight by 25% before 2050; so there does appear to be a strong drive to ensure that rail freight has an important role in the new rail landscape.
As usual from Maggie, a very thought provoking and insightful presentation that looked beyond the newspaper headlines at the real work that is going on behind the scenes as the next era of UK railways becomes reality.
