Railways: Freight

(asked on 20th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the (1) current, and (2) future, haulage capacity of freight locomotives; and whether they include any such estimate in plans for the future development of the rail network.


Answered by
Baroness Vere of Norbiton Portrait
Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 3rd February 2020

Haulage capacity of freight locomotives are a matter for Freight Operating Companies (FOCs). FOCs are private sector companies and receive no state funding for the procurement of rolling stock. However, the July 2019 report by the Rail Industry Decarbonisation Taskforce and RSSB – “Final Report to the Minister for Rail” - estimate that there are currently around 850 freight locomotives in regular service, moving around 19 billion net tonne kilometres of freight per year (2016-2017).

Network Rail published a rail freight forecast for 2033/34 and 43/44 in July 2019. This study analysed the existing haulage capacity of freight locomotives. In addition, one scenario considered the impacts of an increase of 2.2m square metres of warehousing capacity and a 5% increase in train length by 2033/34. These scenarios and forecasts are used when appraising freight infrastructure upgrades through the Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline (RNEP).

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