News

The Department for Transport has released its Transport Trends 2007 report outlining all aspects of the UK's transport infrastructure. We've been looking at some of the aspects relating to freight movements and how they have changed over the years. Domestic freight increased by 44% between 1980 and 2006, from 175 to 252 billion-tonne-kilometres (btk). The majority of this increase is due to goods moved by road, which  has increased by 79% since 1980, from 93 to 167btk. Road freight now accounts for 66% of all goods moved, compared with 53% in 1980.

Goods moved by rail declined from 1988 to 1994 but have since risen to 22btk. Between 1994 and 2006 goods moved by rail increased by 70% rail now accounts for 9% of all goods moved. More freight is moved by road, with water's share falling from 31 to 21% over the same period. The total weight of domestic goods moved increased by 32% between 1980 and 2006, from 1,769 to 2,332 million tonnes. This is considerably less than the increase in goods moved over the same period because changes in distribution patterns and in the type of goods moved have led to an increase in the average length of haul.

Much of the increase was due to the rise in the weight of goods moved by road, which increased by 39% between 1980 and 2006, from 1,395 to 1,936 million tonnes. Goods moved by road now account for 83% of all goods moved, compared with 79% in 1980. The  weight of goods moved by rail has fallen by 29% since 1980, from 154 to 110 million tonnes, although this figure has been increasing in recent years. Nonetheless rail freight's share of the market is now just 5% of goods moved, compared with 9% in 1980. Throughout the 1980s, the weight of goods moved by water rose, reaching a peak of 156 million tonnes in 1988. Since then, however, it has fallen. It was 126 million tonnes in 2006, 8% less than in 1980, and accounted for 5% of all goods moved.

Pipeline traffic has nearly doubled since 1980, from 83 to 159 million tonnes a year. The average length of haul for road freight has increased since 1980. At 86 kilometres it is now 29% higher than at the start of the period. This increase is due to a number of factors, including changes in distribution patterns and the type of goods moved. There has been a fall in the share of goods, such as bulk products, that typically travel shorter distances than other goods. An increasing proportion of freight is moved by articulated vehicles, which carry goods on average about twice as far as rigid vehicles.

For rail, the average length of haul remained steady at about 120km between 1980 and the early 1990s (except for 1984 when it was affected by industrial action in the coal industry). Since then it has risen fairly steadily and is now at 201km. Although some of this increase may be due to changes in the way estimates are compiled, it is also partly due to the longer distances that coal is now moved, as a larger share of coal in Great Britain is imported. Goods moved by water have the longest average length of haul in 2006 this was 410km.