IS INDEPENDENCE A PREREQUISITE FOR FREIGHT GROWTH

For many years, most railway networks have carried both passenger and freight services with usually more importance placed on one or the other depending on the travel market in the industrialised countries. Privatisation of national rail companies in Japan and Great Britain has generated separate passenger and freight companies, although most railways, especially in Europe, operate both, although a demarcation has to be made between passenger and freight business otherwise a combination of the types of traffic can lead to heavy losses. It is shown that dedicated railways, whether passenger or freight, have become the most prosperous in the world. The article suggests that rail freight should become more or less independent in order to expand such as in the US where large freight companies hold a 40% market share and make a profit at no cost to the taxpayer. The same situation is seen in Canada, Mexico and South America. In Europe, where railways operate both types of traffic market, share of freight traffic has dropped to 14% whereas in Britain passenger traffic has grown by 30% and freight by a third in five years. The author discusses rail services in different countries and presents the case for a separation of freight and passenger services.