The paper - Planning ahead - published today by Network Rail, the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) and the Rail Freight Operators' Association (RFOA), looks beyond recent improvements and sets out a vision for the long-term future that focuses customer needs, including the capacity to handling potential demand that could double over the next thirty years and possibly even triple in the longer-term.
Graham Smith, chairman of the RFOA, said: "Our vision is for an efficient railway with increased capacity that can accommodate freight users' expanding domestic and international needs."
The rail industry expects that the rail freight industry will grow from transporting 11.5% of goods today to transporting 20% of all goods moved in Britain in the next thirty years.
DB Schenker has welcomed the rail industry's call for rail capacity to be expanded in order to meet the predicted doubling in demand for rail freight services.
A significantly expanded railway would also help meet the UK's commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, provide an improved service to domestic and international shippers of bulk freight, manufactured goods and logistics traffic, and establish rail connections to terminals and distribution centres.
DB Schenker will work with Network Rail, ATOC and the RFOA to support the development of a renewed vision for the freight railway that ensures its growing role as a key part of the UK's supply chain.
The results of this work will support the government's next review of the funding requirements for the railway, due in 2012.
