NO SUCH THING AS A FREE MARKET

This article discusses the future of rail freight in Europe, and analyses why it cannot yet compete with road freight. Many organisations and people across Europe still have a negative view of rail freight, for a variety of reasons that have contributed to rail's loss of the freight transport market share during the last 50 years. In the past, rail has been too dependent on the state, and adopted too little private sector commercial discipline. There are several incompatibilities between different countries. Service has been fragmented, inflexible, complex, and unreliable, with slow transit times, high prices, and problematic communications. Rail freight has had low priority compared with rail passenger services, and lacked money, investment, and innovation. The article describes a rail freight journey from Manchester to Milan as an illustrative example. However, European rail services have begun to improve and become more reliable and less costly. There is a general move to rail freight to obtain economic and environmental benefits. Cross-border facilities are being improved. The European Union (EU) is providing extensive funds, creating European Freight Freeways, and introducing EU-wide tracking systems. Thus rail freight could become quicker, safer, cleaner, and more energy-efficient than road freight.