UK: The Office of Rail & Road reports that freight transported by rail totalled 4·18 billion net tonne-km in April to June 2024, an increase of 7% on the same quarter last year.
The proportion of freight trains cancelled or arriving after 15 min was 7·6%.
Commenting on the numbers released on September 19, Rail Partners CEO Andy Bagnall said ’it is promising to see an increase both in traffic and reliability in the regulator’s latest figures on freight rail usage and performance. Rail Partners and its freight members now want to build on this by turning the new government’s strong support for rail freight growth into practical actions.
‘Rail freight operators want to invest in growing and further decarbonising the sector. They need decision makers to help them create a favourable environment by providing confidence around long term access to the network and investments in capacity.
‘There also needs to be a more level playing field between different modes of freight transport so that freight customers aren’t priced out of making the right decision for the environment by rising rail costs compared to road haulage.’
![Freightliner 66503 with containers[1][1][1]](https://d1c4d7gnm6as1q.cloudfront.net/Pictures/100x67/2/8/9/67289_freightliner66503withcontainers111_851010.jpg)