THE OPPORTUNITY FOR RAIL FREIGHT

This paper presents the Rail Freight Group's viewpoint on the privatisation of British Rail (BR). Freight is the one area where there has been enthusiastic support for the UK Government's rail privatisation policies, mainly by private sector transport companies seeking a realistic alternative to road freight. The private sector is already large in rail freight in the UK, but the inflexibilities of BR, as currently managed, make it uncompetitive with road freight. It seems that there could soon be extensive discussions with Railtrack, offering good prospects for private operators to negotiate train paths and access rights on a commercial basis, and to begin running freight trains as soon as BR is privatised. Railtrack will attempt to charge new operators what the market will bear. Any operator, who finds Railtrack's charge too high, can go to the Department of Transport (DTp) with an environmental assessment, to demonstrate the benefits of his freight going by rail rather than road, and he must present a case for a public grant. An operator may also appeal to the Rail Regulator. The Government will require freight revenues as a whole to cover the total avoidable cost of freight being run on the rail network. For the covering abstract see IRRD 865967.