Great Western Coffee Shop

The plan sets out what is required to support rail freight growth, looks at ways to improve the average speed a freight train can travel at and how to increase reliability - https://www.thenational.scot/news/17505199.national-rail-freight-plan-to-boost-productivity/

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/industry-commercial-partners/rail-freight/freight-growth/

After yesterday's freight train breakdown that screwed up the TransWilts (and not for the first time), and other occurrences of freight trains running so late that the passenger trains can't get though, what a timely decision to take a look at speed and reliability. 

Of course, the article simplifies ... and I'm sure these things have been looked at before. But, yes please, fresh look and not just Scotland.

So each freight train boosts the economy by £4,000,000 per year, or around 80p per person. Scotland's trains carry approximately 800 Kg of freight per person per annum, or just shy of 16 litres of Irn Bru each per week.

I hope it works out well, and I hope we see more freight on the railways. Breakdowns are a nuisance, but could be mitigated by having more reliable locos, or double-heading any that share a line with passenger traffic. Might cost a bit. Why stick with just Scotland, though, unless they know something we don't.

Just that Scotland actually has a government - you know the sort that actually does things.

A downbeat assessment (https://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/exclusive-armitt-no-economic-case-for-carrying-parcels-by-rail) from the man charged with producing a report advising the DfT on its future freight strategies.

When is a link not a link...?

Link fixed - sorry about that.

So the numbers speak for themselves. This isn't the first time around, of course, but unless rail can be made cheaper, then road it is.

Not specific to Scotland, but I have read that the road haulage industry foresees a general, long term shift in the post-Brexit future for cross-border traffic (I mean the UK's borders, not Scotland-England!) from lorries on ferries to unaccompanied containers. This is due to customs delays and port capacity; a container stacked up on the dockside costs less than a lorry and driver hanging round for clearance. Presumably this would have to be accompanied by a general shift in retail and industry from JIT towards warehousing, but it could open up opportunities for new intermodal traffic to move by rail.