R A I LT R AC K - The Railways Archive

freight
Volume overall. . .
grew by 12% last
year and we expect
a similar increase
this year
84
7.1 7.2
7.1 Progress in 1998
In last year’s NMS, we challenged ourselves and our partners
in the freight industry to increase rail in the freight market
and freight in the rail market.Early results are encouraging.
Volume overall,when measured in gross tonne-kilometres,
grew by 12% last year and we expect a similar increase this
year. Our customers have begun to introduce new
locomotives and wagons,increase their share of traditional
rail freight markets and develop new ones. Together we are
developing new freight terminals and bringing disused
facilities back into use .
In addition, we welcome the recent publication of the
Sustainable Distribution document by DETR.It contains a
number of important developments which will help set the
scene for the further growth of the rail industry.
We are pleased to be part of this renaissance in rail
freight.We have started to increase the loading gauge on
certain key routes so that the industry can address more of
the intermodal market.We have streamlined the processes
for developing projects and are introducing new equipment
to make it easier for our customers to introduce more
innovative services.In the last year, more than 100
certificates for freight equipment have been approved by our
Rolling Stock Approvals Board,with the introduction of the
Class 66 locomotive and the UK-built steel-coil wagon by
English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS),and the Class 57
locomotive and new intermodal wagons by Freightliner being
particular highlights.
We have reduced the number of delays that we cause
to freight trains by over 10% and have developed extra
paths on the network whose departure, arrival and transit
times more readily meet the market’s future requirements.
We have become more flexible in meeting customers’
requirements by modifying our timetabling procedures to
allow them to run more trains at short notice. Over the past
two years,the number of freight trains run on short-term
schedules has risen by 50% and is now more than half of the
total,with a particular increase in trains run at less than 48
hours’notice.
These developments have been achieved largely within
the current capacity and capability of the network.Spare
capacity remains, for the time being,on most routes and we
have identified a number of additional paths on key freight
corridors.But,if our customers’market forecasts are to be
achieved, we will need to continue to invest in the
infrastructure in anticipation of market demand as well as
seek timetabling solutions to accommodate growth in both
passenger and freight traffic.
However, in assessing the future, we must sound a note of
caution.Some of the recent growth has been in traditional
rail freight markets where the increase has been in distance
rather than tonnage. Growth in the net tonnes car ried has
been more modest.The rail industry has not yet made
significant advances into the core road freight markets.And,
together with other industry parties, we have more work to
do in developing a mechanism to keep our track access
charges affordable and above our avoidable costs,while
simultaneously investing to meet the longer-term market
requirements.
7.2 Customer requirements
Over the past six months, we have been working closely
with our customers to develop the rail freight market.
This work has included:
• a joint understanding of the market potential. We have
used our customers’ forecasts in this NMS to assess the
potential demand for additional capacity and for
improvements in capability of the network.
• a review of the economics of carrying rail freight on the
network today which we have shared with key
stakeholders.
• reviewing a wide range of operating and development
issues.From this work, we have identified a number of
areas where we can make further improvements and
have agreed targets with our customers to measure our
progress.
Overall,our customers have formally identified 194
requirements.We have agreed a way forward on 161.Of the
outstanding issues, 14 will be covered by the standard
industry processes, or by us providing further information to
support our views, eg indicative timetables of future capacity
on particular routes.We are developing plans for the
remaining 19,having discussed them further with our
customers and the Rail Regulator.We have referred to the
key points in Table A opposite.