Freight recovers to pre-pandemic levels
By ‘Industry Update’
RAIL freight traffic is 10% higher than 2020 and 0.7% higher than 2019, according to the latest figures from the Office of Road and Rail (ORR). These cover the Quarter 2 period from July 1 to September 30, 2021 and show that traffic amounted to 4.28 billion net tonne kilometres (ntk), a measure that combines 19.8 million tonnes lifted and 8.41 million kilometres hauled.
The freight operating companies have done well to sustain the level of activity given continuing decline in the use of coal, as power station closures have reduced the operational sites to two plants at Ratcliffe (Nottinghamshire) and West Burton (Lincolnshire). These are held in reserve for use when there is a spike in demand from the National Grid, or weather conditions cause low levels of wind generation.
Intermodal dominant
The largest component of freight traffic was intermodal operations between ports and inland distribution centres, plus a number of domestic flows, where a volume of 1.68 billion ntk was recorded – equivalent to a
