I know passenger train fare in UK is very high compared to other (European) countries.
But how does the cost of transporting goods by train compares with other parts of the world?
Is it similarly priced like passenger transport? Is freight transport also privateised?
I have seen very few goods trains (compared against number of passenger trains) whereas in many other countries you see more goods trains than passenger trains.
I feel UK trains are under unitilized for moving freight.
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Trains are most economic when moving huge amounts of freight over long (trans continental) distances. This is a tiny island.
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But what is the problem loading trains on mainland Europe and unload in UK and vice versa?
OK, it may not be possible after Brexit, but what prevented it from happening so far?
Most of Europe same Standard Gauge anyway.
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Too expensive, too many cities too close together to make it pay.
Works better if you are moving hundreds or thousands of tonnes of coal wood etc large distances, places like Canada, Oz etc use it much more.
If it worked at the right price, it'd be used more but isn't. I think that tells it's own story.
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Infrastructure is there to transport goods from China to UK by rail.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiwu%E2%80%93London_railway_line
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>> Infrastructure is there to transport goods from China to UK by rail.
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>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiwu%E2%80%93London_railway_line
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If it is cost effective it will be used, if not it won't. It will have to be cheap to beat a container ship.
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North Rail express - Norway to Sweden
I watched the full documentary ( mighty trains series) about this train which carries just fish in one direction and misc on the return.
Lorry trailers are loaded on special rolling stock.
Each self powered freezer unit is monitored the whole trip.
An idea of it
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0THvhrhjGII
www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/innovation/1004949_1_3451908_eps01_electricity_yt_pl/
www.railwaygazette.com/news/freight/single-view/view/north-rail-express-takes-db-schenker-beyond-the-arctic-circle.html
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The china rail link is just a token effort. There is a slight issue called the channel tunnel in the way, and it has limited extra capacity for freight.
If you have seen one of the huge container ships dock in Felixtsowe or Southampton, with tens of thousands of containers on board, you will see there simply isn't the flexibility, capacity or cost advantage to carry this stuff by rail from china.
As for the UK, there is a freight line backbone, but many of the UK lines are not rated or gauged for heavy freight.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 21 Dec 18 at 18:07
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>> I feel UK trains are under unitilized for moving freight.
The main trunk lines to and from London are fully utilised, at least in peak times. That's the main justification for HS2.
Trains work well for long distance bulk haul. In a compact country like the UK there's only so much scope for that. Used to be a lot of coal to power stations and I believe there is still significant quantity of biomass to Drax power station. Cars for export go to Southampton and other ports and there is two way traffic through the chunnel with new vehicles.
There's lots of containerised stuff too, probably mainly Anglo-Scottish or to/from ports like Felixstowe. Living in hearing distance of trains on the Euston main line there's plenty of night time traffic. If I'm waiting for a train at Northampton it's uncommon not to see a freight train or two trundle through. At one time one of these carried Post Office trucks to Willesden's rail connected post distribution centre but, IIRC, it wasan experiment that didn't deliver promised gains.
Local to me we also have Daventry International Freight Terminal which sees regular intermodal shifts including stuff for Tesco.
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This is the UK's freight network gauged for container traffic
cdn.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Enhanced-W10-loading-gauge-map-of-the-network.pdf. Note no capacity for standard containers from Dover.
There is additional routes for other stuff, stone, aggregate, certain types of covered car carriers, and military, but they are very widely spread, for example anything heavy from Kent, Sussex, has to travel south round the bottom of London, through Clapham Junction, across the Thames to imperial Warf, up to Shepards Bush, Then North or down to reading via acton to go west or southwest.
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Goods train operating model - Old Navy
