Freight on Scotland's Railway - 2022 

40 years ago I was working with BR in Inverness and looking after the intermodal facility at Elgin where Peter Stirling got 900% more loads lifted by HGV tractors & drivers working locally to move whisky from Speyside to Glasgow Drivers got home every day, too We also had John Russell moving coal in half height open TEU boxes I travel overnight using M74/M6 when there's gap in the passenger service offering, like the 14 hour hole in services England - Scotland on Saturday nights (so I switch to coaches at PRE/NCL, if I miss that last train). Overnight freight traffic has dropped off a cliff over the past 15 years, with a massive % of Malcolm's loads now travelling on their trains, travelling to freight hubs they own, or run with partners, connected with turnkey warehousing, distribution or logistics for clients, since just as the original Railway Economics model makes clear, you never make money by only running the trains. Some innovation I want to develop Cutting out the idle vehicle at loading & unloading points, by using modern air suspension systems Delivering greener depot sites with improved rainwater management & climate/pollution/noise mitigation through 'green' pavements & siding tracks (some green road systems can handle a 30TON wheel load, but drain down to c.90% of the equivalent grass meadow (holding back up to 5,500 Tons of rainfall run-off per ha per year. . oh & it can look nice too I also want to look at using Cake-Boxx basic (1 TEU) platforms for timber to make loading & transfer faster & safer, strapped down just once át felling site, & then moved to rail or water for efficient movement of bulk traffic Versatile units could also address the poor economics of 1-way flows, which I saw when investigating a double fatality linked to a corner cutting operation with retail logistics, full trucks out to extremity of the country, but no return cargo, whilst quarried minerals, & some farmed product using separate trains running empty in the other direction. The COP26 event had an interesting thought on how the empty glass bottles came from England only to return filled with whisky, but not always connecting the 2 flows to use the same transport.... Well, probably said too much there, but a closing shout for the freight already using 100 & 125 mph freight trains, a shout for 12 years of Jeff Screeton's proven concept still battling against DfT inflexible specification of Class 80x trains, & painfully slow uptake by some TOC, plus Phil Read/Karl Watts trains that can replace 8-24 56 mph trucks carrying retail & premium parcels traffic (online orders) át 100mph. Some silos to shake here though - a station at Mossend North to connect existing 8tph to deliver workers to Eurocentral & other business parks, plus unloading cages (modern BRUTE/MATE) for Amazon & other distribution hubs, plus please build the Almond Chord part of EGIP, with a station at the old Turnhouse Airport site - connecting directly to EDI airfreight terminal & several freight forwarders, plus a better location than Edinburgh Gateway for passengers, as it can share transfer transport with long stay car parking (the rail link also takes trains away from leaking Winchburgh Tunnel & strapped up 1848 Almond Viaduct Cheers H

It’s ironic that we want rail freight back after pulling up all the sidings all over the country lol 😆 But at least it’s a start 🤔 Another silly thing was not going all the way too Carlisle on the Waverley route and putting single line sections in drrrrrrrrr 🙄 And with the Carstairs upgrade what a fantastic diversion route that would of been as it would be completed now 😮

Freight trains are still eco-friendly and can handle more heavy goods. Very interesting video 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Some interesting news... I still think there is scope to attract more freight onto rail, potentially using intermodal and / or conventional bulk wagons (albeit with a form of amalgamation / shared user services), with .. eg sawn timber, lime for glass making, foodstuffs, waste and recycling materials, dicing salt, & scrap metals, etc ... just count the daily lorry flows across the border and within Scotland !

That’s if most freight trains are not “cancelled due to a request by the train operator”

Interesting, I would say that now is the time for Scotland to strike agreement with some companies (and governments?) in Europe and establish some train ferries. I know that now, when the United Kingdom had left the EU, there would be some problems with customs, but I would say that even with them, those ferries could significantly help with trade and with reduction of CO2 emissions as goods could remain on trains and would not be transferred to lorries on their way to various places in Europe.

You won't find electric trains north of the Central Belt and never will. Net Zero fantasy

That’s if most freight trains are not “cancelled due to a request by the train operator”