FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
Rail must shape England’s new communities
The UK government’s push for a new generation of settlements is rooted in a familiar problem: a persistent housing shortage. While empty upper floors and…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
Middle East war casts long shadow over UK rail freight operations
Is Britain’s rail freight sector in a state of readiness? Probably yes, but they don’t call it a supply chain for nothing. The links between…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
When the fire is not the railway’s fault
It has been almost a week since the devastating blaze adjacent to Glasgow Central Station forced the indefinite closure of Scotland’s busiest rail hub. Passenger…
Friday Freight Path
Friday Forum: degrees or diesel?
Britain’s railways are recruiting again, and in serious numbers. In its 200th anniversary year, the industry has pledged to take on 2,000 apprentices, a signal…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
Now rail meets road evident at Northampton
A freight train emerges from a tunnel beneath a Northamptonshire hillside and rolls into a forest of warehouses. Minutes later, lorries disperse towards the M1,…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
HS2 and rail freight in UK future
The long-awaited recommencement of tunnelling work on the Old Oak Common to London Euston section of HS2 should be welcomed. After years in the doldrums…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
Britain still makes for the world
The prevailing narrative of the British economy is one of service-sector dominance, a landscape of finance and consultancy where the soot-stained factories of the 20th…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
Bringing rail freight into the national conversation
For too long, transport has treated rail freight as an afterthought. This week has been no different. Despite all the political machinations hogging the headlines,…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
The UK’s Victorian railway faces 21st century challenges
Britain likes to pretend it has a modern railway. Most weeks, the network does its best to expose that as a polite fiction. In the…
Friday Freight Path
Freight is in season, and out of step with the wider economy
Britain’s economy continues to shrink, and employment figures disappoint. Sometimes, the only growth seems to be inflation figures. Rail freight is once again shouldering more…
Friday Freight Path
British rail freight ready to go net zero?
The UK Government has committed to achieving a net-zero economy by 2050. Two years ago, it set a target for rail freight growth of at…
FRIDAY FREIGHT PATH
The Non-Stop to Nowhere: Britain’s capacity issues bite
Few railway stories have climbed the news agenda quite like this week’s saga of the “Manchester Millionaire” — the unofficial name for the premium 0700…