News

A report into rail freight by the Scottish Executive and the Road Haulage Association (RHA) has showed that rail operators need to sharpen their act. To encourage road hauliers to consider rail, a number of RHA members were asked to investigate the costs and ease of use of rail. The results showed that while hauliers appreciate the  potential benefits rail offers, they could not operate with the restrictions inherent to rail.

The hauliers found it difficult to obtain a price from the rail freight operator - and when they did, the rail prices were too expensive. While grants are available, it takes six weeks to obtain a decision and requires a certain level of traffic flow. Other inhibitors are: rail companies quoting for the train journey, not door to door customers being expected to provide the containers and the lack of freight terminals.

Phil Flanders, RHA director for Scotland and Northern Ireland, says: "If rail freight is serious about making a difference then the operators need to get together to figure these issues out. "Rail freight can be useful to the haulage industry because it gives choices and many hauliers were willing to give it a chance, but they cannot use it because the railways are not interested."

No one from the Scottish Executive was available as CM went to press.