Back on the rails
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The Channel Tunnel and rail privatisation are making intermodal transport a viable proposition. That's why some major players are joining the game...
It could be the biggest revolution in international haulage since the advent of the RO-R() ferry. Some logistics experts predict that purpose-built high-speed freight trains carrying demount truck bodies will be the most cost-effective way to make trans-European freight deliveries in the 21st century.
It is already happening on a small scale and plans are being laid which, combined with the Single Market, British Rail privatisation and the opening of the Channel Tunnel, could open up the market for competitive truck-focused rail services. It may sound fanciful today, but promoters of this revolution believe it could end the era of lone lorry drivers spending days taking loads across Europe.
MARGINALLY VIABLE
The intermoclal concept is far from new: British Rail set up its Anglo-Scottish Freightliner service more than 20 years ago, but its scope was limited by the size of the UK. The benefits really become apparent only on journeys of 400 miles or more, so Freightliner's longer journeys were only marginally viable. In many ways, it was an idea before its time.
Expanding the concept to a transcontinental system presents new opportunities and at least two competing services will be running when the Chunnel opens some time next year.
The rail industry contender is AC!. It's 50% owned by Intercontainer, with Railfreight Distribution (RID) and SNCF, the French railways, holding 25% apiece. Shaping up against it from the road haulage camp comes Combined Transport Ltd (CTL). Its shareholders include the Road Haulage Association with a 3% holding and 28 major transport and forwarding companies including TDG, Tibbett & Britten and P&O.
To counter the scale of the rail operation CTL is part of the Brussels-based DIRR marketing organisation which acts on behalf of similar mainland European services covering Scandinavia, western, southern and eastern Europe from 150 terminals across the Continent. To that, CTL will add up to nine British terminals.
One of the fundamental features of its service, with scheduled trains running regardless of whether they are full, is that theoretically it complements, but does not compete with, road haulage. Graham Manchester, from CTL's sales department, says: "We don't sell to manufacturers of goods. We wholesale the space on our trains to hauliers who then sell their services to their customers."
So, just like a ferry operator, the haulier sells the carriage of its customers' goods and CTL sells the transport of the vehicle to the haulier. Manchester insists his staff will never sell direct to hauliers' customers.
The system is built around the limitations of the European rail network. "Le Shuttle"— the Folkestone/Calais Channel Tunnel ferry trains—are among the few in Europe which c a n accommodate complete trucks. A number of piggy-back operations on the Continent can accommodate low-height, contoured trailers, but in general the height restrictions imposed by tunnels and bridges otherwise tunnels and bridges rule out the carriage of standard trucks and trailers. Because the UK rail network was developed earlier than in many Continental countries it suffers more than most in this area.
ca offers an intermodal service for swap bodies. With the right equipment hauliers can carry loads to their nearest rail terminals, transfer them on to trains and arrange for them to be collected and moved by road to their final destinations.
Manchester says the opportunities are especially exciting for operators taking advantage of CTL's Class C demountable boxes on legs. These come in 7.15, 7.45 and 7.82m lengths for carriage on drawbar rigs. A number of Scottish and Welsh hauliers are experimenting with them—Manchester says they offer more flexibility because two full containers can be sent together to separate destinations, rather than a half-filled 13.6m vehicle being needed for each deliveryThe wine and spirits sector is expressing interest in the possibilities. The additional benefit is that the proposed vehicle weight concessions for combined transport vehicles means that 44 tonners could be used for many of these journeys. MAN has already built a demonstration vehicle which could carry 26.5 tonnes on air suspension.
SUBSTANTIAL GROWTH
CIL has launched its service using the Harwich-Zeebrugge rail-ferry crossing, but substantial growth is predicted when the Chunnel opens. Early experience bears out the company's belief that it could revolutionise road haulage: "Provided they don't go more than 150 miles from the terminal, vehicles could be double-shifted," says Manchester, who argues that the additional capital cost of the special vehicles would be offset by greater productivity.
"If operators use drawbar vehicles working closer to their home base they get the benefit of using their own cheaper fuel supplies and avoid the social disadvantages of drivers having to work away from home," he says. "It is probably the most exciting opportunity that the small to medium-size operator has for European haulage." He points out that unwelcome costs, like £400 to replace a tyre on a French autoroute, are avoided too. "And remember that the operator might make only 1150 on that sort of trip." Manchester believes that operators should invest in suitable equipment so that they can meet customers' needs when they want to use the rail option: up to 90% of German vehicles are already set up for intermocIal work, even though only 10% actually do so.
ADVANTAGES
One of the advantages claimed for long-haul rail is its reliability: this was a factor behind Poole-based GRE's decision to invest in a dedicated piggy-back rail service from Cherbourg to northern Italy. It found the railway cured many problems, such as border delays, security and traffic jams. Now the company plans to build up the service to complement its road operations. Another private sector railfreight venture is the recently announced tie-up between the Essexbased Isis Freight Group (one of the CTI. shareholders) and the Potter shipping and warehousing group, based in Ripon, North Yorks. They are still testing the concept, but if it goes ahead development manager Jeff Miles says it will offer a liner train service from depots in Ely and Selby to mainland Europe.
One potential customer already runs between Ely and Austria. "We are doing a test and run over the summer and autumn to see whether this is a service we can offer," says Miles "It involves putting together freight trains in partnership with traction providers and forwarding agents. You could say we're at the prototype stage."
Its success will be measured by whether it generates sufficient return to suit all of the partners in the venture and whether it is technically and operationally feasible. "When we see it reaching a viable stage we will consider offering it commercially," says Miles, "but we may find it is not viable."
The omens for the concept are good, even if Isis and Potter are being cautious Legislation favours it; rail privatisation is injecting new commercial thinking into RE) and its continental counterparts. The tunnel is a new opportunity and increasing road congestion could be the further spur to change the economics of today's haulage market, The freight train now standing could be Europe's new bypass, by Alan Millar