FTA supports development of rail freight capacity
Responding to the Department for Transport granting consent for the expansion of the existing Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, the Freight Transport Association has said that it supports any development of rail freight that will improve network access.
The construction and operation of a new rail link to a replacement interchange, was announced by the DfT yesterday and outlines new transhipment sidings, container storage, an HGV reception area, up to 731,000 square metres of rail served storage and a strategic open space.
Chris Welsh, FTA’s Director – Global and European Policy said: “FTA has long campaigned for opportunities to improve areas that will allow rail freight to realise its full potential. If we are going to achieve sustainable rail freight growth and meet the very challenging rail freight growth target, we need to work together. Any development of terminals such as the plans at Daventry that will improve and expand capacity have to be good news for the industry.”
Earlier this year, the FTA published its Agenda for More Rail Freight which identified areas where progress is required for rail freight to fully realise its potential. Within the document the fourteen areas were identified by the UK’s main retailers and shippers for improvement were broken down into four key themes – costs and competiveness, service availability and flexibility, network access and international services.
FTA has worked with the UK’s major retailers within the Association’s membership to give greater visibility to their current use of rail freight. The same retailers have provided FTA with data giving details of their flows over 200 miles, providing the opportunities for load matching and even greater potential to use rail freight.
