Moving Freight

Customers choose rail to move their freight because it offers good advantages in price, reliability, speed, the ability to move large quantities in bulk and avoiding road congestion. Furthermore, changes to European Union laws on the number of hours that lorry drivers can work and a drive towards environmental credibility, all point to a bright future for rail freight.

Selecting a rail haulage package
Type and volume of traffic per train
Identifying terminals
Assessing the need for road haulage
Identifying wagons and loads
Developing the timetable
Day-to-day operation

Selecting a rail haulage package

There is a process involved in creating a new rail freight service. The easiest way to obtain rail haulage is to buy the package through a freight operating company (FOC), intermediate terminal operator or other third-party logistics company. Either can offer you a range of options, from a stand-alone rail haulage service that collects a train from one terminal and delivers it to another (known as 'hook and haul'), through to a complete package that might include haulage, wagons, terminal facilities, and road collection and delivery.

Another option is to become a train operator, which may offer advantages but may also be time-consuming and expensive to set up. Prospective rail freight customers are urged to seek advice from the above parties.

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Type and volume of traffic per train

The nature of the freight to be carried by rail will affect most aspects of the rail service, including the type of rail terminal(s), rail wagons (rolling stock) and haulage (traction). The textbook definition of ‘ideal’ traffic for a rail service would be that involving high volume and/or long-distance flows. However, various combinations of payload and distance can produce viable flows, with grants available to cover start-up and/or operating costs if required.

For bulk commodities, such as coal, aggregates, minerals or petrochemicals, volumes of between 1,000 tonnes and 4,000 tonnes moved directly between rail-linked sites (e.g. quarry to processing plant, port to factory, factory to distribution centre) can be competitive with other modes over distances as little as 10 miles.

For non-bulk commodities, such as manufactured goods and foodstuffs, such high volumes might be difficult to achieve with a single train. However, competitive services may still be possible with payloads of 300 tonnes or more per train, over distances more than 150 miles between rail-linked sites, where there is little or no road haulage needed at either end.

Multi-user train services are available to handle individual wagon or container loads, but maximising the volume despatched per train should be the aim wherever possible.

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Identifying terminals

Having determined the volume of traffic likely to be shipped by rail, the next step is to determine which rail terminal will be used at each end of the rail haul, between the ultimate origin and destination of the flow.

In an ideal world, the origin and destination would lie alongside the railway line, to avoid the need for additional road haulage and double-handling. Where this is not the case, the customer should seek guidance from the rail freight industry contacts in the Directory, as to the location of the nearest rail terminal(s) and the facilities available on site. The options available for an end customer are as follows:

a) Use the nearest rail terminal(s) at each end. These may or may not have the right facilities on site to handle or store the traffic. If not, the customer will need to explore with the terminal operator whether facilities can be provided within time or budget constraints. Grants may be available to offset the costs of installing these facilities.

b) Use the nearest rail terminal(s) with the right facilities. This may be more distant than option (a). The additional road haulage costs at each end will need to be considered against any savings in investment in facilities that might be incurred in (a).

c) Develop dedicated rail terminal(s) at either / both ends. If a direct rail link is possible at either the ultimate origin and/or destination for the rail service, this option should be explored to determine the likely investment and lead time, and potential grant availability. In some cases, there may be scope for relocating from an existing site to an alternative rail-linked site, to remove the road haulage that would otherwise be required.

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Assessing the need for road haulage

The requirement for road haulage at each end of a rail journey can impact on the 'door-to-door' price of a road-rail-road service compared to the road-throughout price. The aim should be to minimise the length of road haul at each end of a rail journey, either by careful choice of rail terminals or by bringing the origin and/or destination to the rail network (e.g. relocation or new rail links). Grants may also be available from the SRA to offset additional road costs

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Identifying wagons and loads

There is a wide range of modern railway wagons available to suit most traffic requirements, which divides into two main groups:

• Conventional wagons: normally designed for a specific purpose or traffic type, such as hopper wagons for coal or aggregates, tankers for petrochemicals and covered van wagons for palletised traffic
• Intermodal wagons: designed to carry various intermodal units (e.g. containers, swap bodies or piggyback trailers) in combination on a flat deck carried above or between the railway wheel sets ('bogies')

There are various trade-offs between using conventional and intermodal wagons, in terms of the maximum payload tonnage and volume per train against the ease of transhipment at each end to other modes, production or storage facilities. Conventional wagons tend to offer the best payload to weight ratio, but handling arrangements at each end may be more involved. Intermodal wagons and the intermodal units placed thereon tend to offer the closest match on internal height and width to road trailers, and only one type of handling equipment is required.

The rail haulier and/or a third-party leasing company or manufacturer can provide wagons and intermodal load units. The decision on the type of procurement option to be pursued will depend on the type of wagon required, the length of contract envisaged, and the relative costs. In some cases, a bespoke wagon design may be required for a specialised traffic where no existing wagon will suffice. Grants may be available to offset the cost of these wagons, but lead times can be significant for design, construction and technical approval. Network Rail owns wagons used for transporting materials (such as ballast, sleepers and rails) for our own track renewals, and would, subject to Regulatory consents, be pleased to make these available for temporary hire when not required for our own needs.

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Developing the timetable

The national rail timetable (NRT) is one of the most important and complex components of the railway system, co-ordinating thousands of train movements per day across the network. The timetable is revised twice a year, to take account of the aspirations of freight and passenger train operating companies.

For freight services, it is recognised that, unlike passenger services, some freight trains may not always operate to the same timetable every week. Depending on the volume and pattern of demand, freight trains may only operate 'as required', and/or may operate between different terminals.

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Day-to-day operation

Haulers and their customers want reliability above all else. Roads are becoming more unreliable, due to increased congestion, and incidents on the highway network can cause major knock-on delays to all road users. Rail freight services can sometimes be similarly affected. Rail services are planned and a schedule is issued to show the times when the train should run. Sometimes this may not be possible. Over the last few years, the rail industry has invested heavily to improve service reliability, including train operators investing in new locomotives and rolling stock, and Network Rail / SRA [not SRA!!!] investing in renewals to track and signalling equipment. In addition, Network Rail and the train operating companies have contingency plans to minimise delays to services should an incident occur. These include:

• Train drivers learning diversionary routes that they can operate over should there be delays on their planned route
• Standby locomotives positioned strategically around the rail network to assist any trains that break down
• Multi-skilled staff deployed around the clock, to enable a range of repairs to be carried out quickly, outside of planned maintenance schedules.

In addition, however, it is very important that trains depart their originating point on time. The rail network operates to a tightly timed pattern of intertwined train services and any train that misses a scheduled departure may have to wait some time for a spare path in the timetable and may delay other customers’ services in the process.

To ensure the reliability of the network, Network Rail undertakes a schedule of maintenance and improvement works on the network. As a result, some services may be diverted or have extended journey times (train operating companies are normally given between 6-18 months’ notice of planned maintenance work so that they can reschedule services accordingly).

Customers are advised to discuss contingency plans with their rail hauliers, both for scheduled maintenance and for dealing with incidents when trains may be unable to run. This may involve agreement to alter schedules on specific days to avoid planned maintenance, or to provide stand-by road haulage via local call-off agreements, to keep traffic moving should the rail service be unable to operate.

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