Shift freight from road to rail and sea
Greater priority needs to be given to public investment in infrastructure and facilities to enable more freight to be shifted from road haulage to rail and sea.
Freight by rail and sea is substantially more energy-efficient than road haulage, and the two more sustainable modes are much safer in terms of deaths and injuries caused. Rail freight – both through its greater energy efficiency and its ability to use electrified railways – also offers considerably greater resilience than road haulage in the face of ‘Peak Oil’, the imminent peaking of global oil production and its inexorable decline thereafter.
Following a successful cross-party campaign led by Transform Scotland and the Rail Freight Group, the Scottish Government’s February 2011 Budget reversed its earlier proposal to scrap the Freight Facilities Grants (FFG) scheme which offers grant aid up to 75% of the capital cost of facilities required to secure mode switch from road to rail or sea. However, the current £2m FFG fund for the financial year 2011-12 only allows modest projects to go ahead – more substantial schemes involve the creation of new rail and sea terminals which have longer lead times and construction periods, inevitably spanning more than one year.
The Scottish Government must take a more strategic approach to FFG, with a properly-funded budget for at least three years ahead. It also needs to ensure that bridges and tunnels on more of Scotland’s rail routes can accommodate the modern generation of tall containers, and that track and signalling are upgraded to accommodate longer freight trains. Last but not least, local authorities should be encouraged to incorporate appropriate rail and sea freight strategies in their Development Plans and to protect potential rail freight sites from inappropriate development.