Skip to main content

New initiative to enhance rail freight logistics for UK construction products

World Cement,


The Mineral Products Association (MPA) and the Rail Freight Group (RFG) have launched a new joint initiative – ‘A Commitment to the Future’. This outlines the key steps for development of rail freight logistics for the UK’s construction sector.

Every day, some 60 trains transport cement, sand, stone and other construction products around the UK. The construction industry’s use of the railway network has been on the up for the last decade, culminating in a record high in the last financial year. It has been estimated that the sector’s rail use will grow by approximately 2.5%/year as investment in infrastructure, and hence demand for construction products, continues. According to the MPA and RFG, coordinated action and investment will be required from the rail and construction industries in order to accommodate this growth.

‘A Commitment to the Future’: five key steps

  1. Improve the sustainability of construction logistics by encouraging modal shift and enhancing the safety and environmental performance of rail operations.
  2. Aim to achieve a 20% average increase in the payload per train within the next five years.
  3. Support development of the rail network and terminals so that major routes can routinely accommodate trains of 450 m in length, with a 2000 t of payload.
  4. Be responsible users of the network, working to improve performance, increase efficiency and optimise and safeguard network capacity.
  5. Make rail freight the preferred solution for supplying major infrastructure schemes.

“This important initiative brings together rail operators and their customers to set out a vision of how rail freight logistics can help to support the construction sector. Becoming more efficient, and by being more responsible users of the rail network we will help to leverage vital growth, keeping construction lorries off the road and supporting our economy,” explains Maggie Simpson, Executive Director, RFG.

Jerry McLaughlin, Director, Economics and Public Affairs, MPA, adds: “We need to unlock the full potential of rail for transporting key materials such as aggregates and cement from production sites to construction markets and to help ensure future national demands can be met. This commitment is a very positive and necessary step forward.”


Adapted from press release by

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/13052015/new-initiative-to-enhance-rail-freight-logistics-for-uk-construction-products-831/

You might also like

 
 

Embed article link: (copy the HTML code below):