Transport policy in the UK is not moving fast enough to keep up with decarbonisation planning in the EU, says the Rail Freight Group. There are fears that inaction could put rail freight and the British industry at a significant commercial disadvantage.
The Rail Freight Group, the industry representative body in the UK, is urging the London government to include a target for increasing rail freight use in its forthcoming Transport Decarbonisation Plan. It says failure to do so risks the proven role for rail freight in greening the economy. RFG says the potential for rail freight is not being maximised and the UK is falling behind the EU in making the green agenda.
Back in December, the European Green Deal, signed-off by the European Union, reset the Commission’s commitment to tackling climate and environmental-related challenges, claiming it to be this generation’s defining task. “As a matter of priority”, says the EU communique, “a substantial part of the 75 per cent of inland freight carried today by road should shift onto rail and inland waterways.”
Although Britain will not be bound by EU law, having voted to leave the Union, an increasingly stringent policy on the continent will make it more difficult for UK freight – including rail – to operate beyond the Channel Tunnel. The RFG says that policy in this country should at very least match European regulations. If that were achieved, say some commentators, then post-Brexit Britain would actually have a competitive economic edge.