The Genesee & Wyoming, Inc affiliate states that a trebling of rail freight will mean over 20M HGV journeys are removed from the motorways each year, reducing carbon emissions by 2.5M tpa of carbon dioxide.

Today around 9% of freight is moved by rail in Great Britain, from containers to and from the deepsea ports and inland terminals to bulk freight like construction materials, aggregates, and cement. The rail share of deepsea container moves is between 20 and 25%.

Each freight train can remove up to 129 HGVs from Britain’s roads, with container trains removing up to 52 HGVs. For each tonne of freight moved by rail instead of road, carbon emissions are reduced by 76%. Using an electric locomotive there is a clear route to net zero emissions as the national grid is decarbonised.

Tim Shoveller, CEO G&W UK/Europe, said: “There is an increasing desire for businesses to become more sustainable and meet their ambitious sustainability targets. Rail freight is a critical part of the solution, but to make rail the mode of choice for trunk haulage and bulk movements, the economics must work for customers. That means that rail must be able to compete with road haulage.

“The economics of rail freight have been getting more challenging in recent years. As an example, fuel duty, which is one of the largest costs for road hauliers, has been effectively frozen for 14 years. When you compare this to track access charges, the charges we pay to run our trains on the network, these have increased by over 35% through inflationary increases alone for the same time period.

“We are calling on government to set an ambitious target to treble rail freight volumes by 2050 and support the rail freight industry with some key initiatives and policies. A clear statement of intent from Government will provide confidence to the private sector and be a catalyst to make significant investments in long-term assets in what is a highly capital-intensive industry.”

To make this a reality, Freightliner is calling on the government to support the rail freight industry in three key areas:

• Halve track access charges that freight operators pay to run trains on the network.
• Double the modal shift grant that businesses can access to support using rail.
• Keep investing in the rail network to ensure that there is sufficient capacity on busy rail corridors to enable more freight trains to be timetabled.

Freightliner also highlghts the challenges of keeping electric traction running when electricity prices are so high and the need for increased capacity across the UK rail network, especially considering the recent HS2 announcement.

Louise Ward, Safety and Sustainability Director, G&W UK/Europe, said: “We’re not just calling on the government for support, we are also setting our own sustainability targets and roadmaps within Freightliner, for the benefit of our customers and our organisation.

“This includes expanding our use of electric freight trains as well as investments in alternative fuels such HVO and developing new technologies for future locomotives. As the largest freight operator of electric trains in the UK, we want to increase the number of electric services, but to do so requires electricity costs to be affordable and some of today’s gaps on the rail network to be electrified.”

Tim Shoveller was speaking on Sky News’ Climate Show broadcast last weekend.