The Rail Freight Group

On 20th September Maggie Simpson OBE, Director General of the Rail Freight Group, gave us a Zoom presentation on the workings of the Group.

The RFG is the representative body for rail freight in the UK. It has 120 member companies which include rail freight operators, logistics companies, ports, equipment suppliers, property developers and support services. Their aim is to increase the volume of goods moved by rail.

The Group has three main functions – seeking to influence policy to support the growth of rail freight, the promotion of rail freight and organising member events and networking.

She explained that rail freight delivers almost £2.5 billion per annum in benefits to the UK and freight trains take 7.6 million lorries off our roads each year and that the new public body Great British Railways has a duty to promote freight on our railways. One of the biggest challenges facing the industry is how to achieve decarbonisation targets in future years.

This was a most interesting presentation which highlighted the complications of handling freight movements on the railways.