An opportunity for a UK Budget for freight

Next week’s Budget offers the UK government a genuine opportunity to chart a long-term course for freight. Whether it chooses to take that opportunity is quite another matter. As the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, rises on 26 November, the sector will be listening closely for signals that Britain is finally ready to back the industries that keep the economy moving. But the signs so far suggest this may be another short-term fiscal manoeuvre – the kind of rapid course-correction that might work for a nimble hatchback, but not for a nation that relies on long, heavy trains to carry long-term economic momentum. RailFreight.com UK Editor Simon Walton hopes for stamina too.