Domestic rail freight must be part of Scotland’s transport future

Maggie Simpson, Director General, Rail Freight Group

Fast forward to 2020 and over 30 trains a week now ply this corridor, with additional routes also serving Aberdeen and Inverness. The customer base has expanded with multiple retailers and supermarkets consigning goods by rail, and some such as Tesco proudly promoting their use of rail in their branding. In England, the terminal at Daventry has expanded significantly, with its second phase completed in 2015 and its third phase currently in development.

The success of these trains is not only getting lorries off the road – each train is up to half a mile long, taking up to 80 HGVs from the road network - but in getting Scottish goods to market efficiently and effectively. For whilst the northbound services bring retail products from national distribution centres in the Midlands, the southbound flows are still all about exporting Scotland’s local produce, be that mineral water, food and drink, and chipboard.

The run up to Christmas is the busiest time for logistics movements (when Santa heads out on December 24 trains take a well earned rest!). But trains are not just seasonal. This hidden supply chain handles over 100,000 loads each year, operating day and night, and with a 97% performance too. Throughout the challenges of 2020, these trains have continued to move vital goods to and from Scotland ensuring shops are kept stocked and economic output can be delivered

The trains are also helping Scotland decarbonise its economy. On average, rail freight makes only 25% of the carbon of HGVs, and where it can use electric haulage, as most of these trains do, the performance is even better. Around 45% of all rail freight in Scotland is electric, far better than the national average which sits around 12%.

So what has driven this success? A large part of it is the commercial model established by Scottish logistics companies such as WH Malcolm and J.G. Russell, who took the significant risk of contracting the train, and opened up the use of rail for both large and small companies by aggregating traffic to a full train load. This was a stark contrast to the usual arrangements, where the freight train operator took the risk on the train fill, or more commonly sold the entire train to a single customer.

The development of rail linked warehousing has also been instrumental in the success. At Daventry, retailers such as Sainsburys have relocated to be on site, shrinking the distance between railhead and warehouse, reducing costs and time. In Scotland, PD Stirling aim to repeat this model with their Mossend International Rail Park currently under construction, providing new facilities for future growth. Highland Spring’s new rail site at Blackford will shortly commence operations in a similar way.

And what of the future? Well there is certainly appetite to do more. Customers are keen to make more use of rail, driven by environmental concerns, and factors such as road congestion make rail an attractive choice. With seismic changes in the passenger railway as demand suffers the consequences of Covid, there is a real opportunity to allow more freight to operate and allow existing trains to be longer and run with better journey times.

To make this happen, Governments and policy makers need to ensure that railways really deliver for freight. More electrification of trunk routes, in Scotland and across the border can further enhance the environmental credentials, and there must be ongoing support for new innovative services as witnessed recently with a movement of timber by rail. The successes of the last decade show how domestic rail freight has delivered for Scotland and must be part of Scotland’s future.

Maggie Simpson OBE, Director General, Rail Freight Group

Domestic rail freight must be part of Scotland’s transport future - Maggie Simpson OBE

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