The LNER Encyclopedia

With the privatisation of British passenger services, am I right in assuming that the only goods services now operating are 'corporatised' - ie they are run for specific companies - and you can't go down to a goods depot and have something sent by rail?

Sorry for the poor explanation of what I'm trying to say but I hope you all understand!

Do pick-up goods trains still exist? Private sidings?

Have the millions of goods wagons built by British Railways/Rail all been scrapped?

Pyewipe,

The sad truth is that you cannot send a wagon load anymore. Only block trains are run from one private siding to another. There are container depots, so you can load your consignment into a container and send it that way. But what's the point? With the motorway system fully developed, you can drive anywhere in a day in our small island, short of the Highlands of Scotland from southern England. Admittedly the motorway system does get clogged up at times, but there is still plenty of capacity on most routes outside the rush hours, so freight goes by road for now.

We have lots of southern and East European artics on our roads as well, bringing in cheap goods from all over the EU, as we benefit from the strength of the pound against the Euro and cheap labour in the new EU states.

Our railways are up to capacity with passenger trains, so there is little room for extra freight. However "they" only talk about about the problems and they don't see the solution that all railway men know: rebuild the GCR and link it to the Channel tunnel, build container depots all the way up through the Midlands, and get the lots of heavy freight off the roads in Southern England. Instead money is being wasted on projects like the Olympic Games and Trident.


Colombo

You are dead right Columbo,enough said.
Hunslet

Colombo wrote:Our railways are up to capacity with passenger trains, so there is little room for extra freight. However "they" only talk about about the problems and they don't see the solution that all railway men know: rebuild the GCR and link it to the Channel tunnel, build container depots all the way up through the Midlands, and get the lots of heavy freight off the roads in Southern England.

I couldn't agree more. The majority of freight trainloads in Europe are container trains. This is the best way to use the railway, i.e., long distances by rail and short local journeys by road. If only Britain had the continental loading gauge then container trains could operate to many destinations and be a booming industry in the UK.