Scottish Freight: How to Utilise Established Practices Across the Network

While most will never directly interact with rail freight, its impact is felt across the whole of Scotland through clothes worn, cars driven and fuelled, and fully stocked supermarket shelves.

Certainly, in the public consciousness, passenger services dominate the rail landscape, but behind the scenes, rail freight continues to uplift the Scottish economy all while promoting sustainability.

As the sector at large navigates a new control period, Peloton spoke to Fiona Hesling, Rail Freight and Cross-Border Policy Team Leader at Transport Scotland , to hear her insights into the current freight landscape in Scotland, and what the future might bring.

Rail freight is an increasingly powerful green tool

In Scotland, there are around 50 rail freight trains that operate on a daily basis, but Fiona expressed the disproportionately positive impact this can have on the environment, economy, and wider society.

As Scotland increasingly turns its attention to decarbonisation, with a goal to meet net zero by 2045, five years sooner than the UK government’s target of 2050, rail freight proves itself as an increasingly valuable resource.

“Millions of tonnes of goods are moved by rail,” Fiona explained, adding: “Thousands of lorry movements and lorry miles are avoided, and that translates through to social and user benefits, and it translates to hundreds and thousands of tonnes of carbon savings as well.”

In fact, according to Transport Scotland’s Rail Freight Strategy, which was published in 2016, per tonne of cargo, rail freight produces 76% less carbon dioxide than road freight.

That same statistic is still echoed in the recent Rail Partners publication ‘Freight Britain’, which also states that in the wider UK, a single freight journey can remove up to 129 HGV movements.

“We know that it's a hugely powerful green tool for the movement of goods over longer distances.”

Furthermore, approximately 50% of rail freight kilometres in Scotland run on electric traction, which reflects the busier, central belt rail freight terminals, which connect to the west and east coast main lines.

While infrastructure for electrified journeys is concentrated on these busier routes, with more northern services running on diesel, there is scope to address this to decarbonise rail freight further and reap the positive impacts on the wider sector.

Fiona said: “There's certainly an opportunity, in terms of the medium to longer term, for further electrification of our core routes. You could see hybrid locomotives operating or potentially maybe more fully electric journeys.

“It's ultimately the best solution because you can go faster, you can pull more, and you've got less of an issue on the capacity of the network.

“If you can get your rail freight trains going a bit faster, then maybe they don't impact so much on other passenger trains, or they're not having to be looped as often, so it has a ripple impact as well out into how the actual rail infrastructure is used.”

Policy support will accelerate optimisation

On the approach to CP7, Transport Scotland published their High Level Output Specification (HLOS), which calls for the growth of the rail freight sector by ‘8.7% net tonne kilometres in rail freight on the Scottish network, within the existing capability of the rail network without further enhancements.’

Fiona explained that some routes can be optimised without a noticeable impact on passenger services: “What’s really important in terms of capacity and efficiency is trying to maximise the very best use of what we currently have.

“If there's a freight path, is there any reason why it's not being used more routinely? If it's loaded going north into Scotland, but it's just empty containers being pulled back down south, is there a way of looking to see how that could run south loaded? That wouldn't then have a direct impact on the passenger timetable.”

Additionally, in December last year, the UK government set a target to grow rail freight by 75% by 2050. As well as demonstrating confidence and policy support for the sector, this target works with Transport Scotland’s to reinforce one another, which Fiona pointed out is particularly beneficial where cross-border freight is concerned.

This policy support will work alongside the goals of individual businesses to decarbonise their operations, which is increasingly including Scope 3 emissions.

Fiona said: “I think we're going to come to a place where there's a perfect storm where the government is pushing and the industry are interested as well.

“But I think you'll get the tip over as well from businesses who also see that rail freight could offer really significant Scope 3 emissions reductions depending on how the business is structured and depending on how many of their emissions come from transport.”

“We do know about Scope 3 emissions. We know about net zero. We know about targets. We know they’re a lot more in people's minds and businesses’ minds now than it was once upon a time.”

As CP7 dawns, Scottish rail freight looks to overcome challenges and meet new targets. With more industries looking at rail freight to decarbonise their operations, Scotland’s rail freight sector could be a key solution to the nation's wider climate goals.