Time to Think Big

One of the biggest challenges facing the British railroad industry is ensuring there is sufficient capacity to accommodate the rise in demand for freight transportation. This article proposes a new concept known as Big Freight to meet this capacity demand. This concept recognizes that the solution to increasing capacity has many facets, including additional infrastructure, network flexibility and improved scheduling. The primary element of The Big Freight Railway, however, is to pack as much freight into a single timetable path as possible. This involves increasing the length of freight trains and making sure that each car carries the maximum amount of freight that the infrastructure can absorb. As part of The Big Freight Railway concept, primary freight routes that can accommodate longer, heavier, higher and wider freight trains will be identified.