Freight plans for East West Main Line (RailFreight)

Freight has assumed a new and much higher priority in a bold new vision for the line currently under construction to connect the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge. Network Rail has laid out an enhanced vision for the line, calling the current project the core section, and looking to connect cities as far apart as Southampton and Cardiff in the south west with Norwich and Ipswich in the east. The new strategic statement shows the line as an ambitious opportunity to lead an axis of economic development far beyond its 65 route miles (104 km).

Although primarily a passenger route, Network Rail has identified freight opportunities and connectivity as part of an enhanced Strategic Statement, which recognises the project more appropriately as the new East West Main Line. Ironically, Network Rail as an entity may not last long enough to see the first trains run. The government’s infrastructure agency is due to be superseded by Great British Railways before inauguration of EWML services.

Provide alternative strategic routes for freight

Considerable criticism was made of the government’s lack of ambition for the East West Rail project, when it was announced that the line would be built to minimum service level requirements, with no built-in provision for freight nor any electrification. While passively both goods trains and wiring may be accommodated, only a basic diesel passenger service was specified. However, with environmental issues rising up the political agenda, and the government making its own economic ‘levelling up’ commitments, Network Rail, the outgoing infrastructure agency has produced a far more ambitious plan, and given renewed optimism for would-be freight users of the EWML.

“Demand for freight across the national network is set to grow with existing routes nearing capacity in future”, says Network Rail’s just published East West Main Line Strategic Statement. “Additional connections and infrastructure may need to be considered to provide alternative strategic routes for freight, with other infill projects needed to achieve electrified routes using East West Rail infrastructure in future”, they say. The report says NR wants to ensure that infrastructure changes made as part of the East West Rail programme are as flexible as possible for passenger and freight services over the long-term.

New national routing options for freight

The freight lobby has been calling for capacity on the new line, since it was first proposed. Britain’s network, which serves passenger traffic first, is largely radial from terminals in London. It is difficult to navigate from east to west, as freight often would like to do. Like a huge rim around those spokes, the EWML is just the sort of dedicated wheel that freight traffic flows need to avoid awkward and expensive – and often uneconomic north-south detours to reach east-west destinations.