Podcast highlights: Season 2, Episode 5
Dougie starts by highlighting the freight sector’s agility in the face of challenges like rail reform, ETCS rollout, climate change, and decarbonisation. This agility will prove crucial in supporting the modal shift from road to rail, which is going to be essential for meeting the growth target.
In a nutshell, attracting freight businesses away from road transport will be key. To drive this, Dougie outlines the need for:
- a supportive network
- investment in infrastructure
- improved train pathing
- a commitment to decarbonisation.
Of course, any growth that results from these efforts must also be safe. Including freight in our Annual Business Plan shows our commitment to this mission. Along the way, we’ll provide expertise and data analysis to support the sector’s priority risks.
Specifically, Dougie notes, the Freight Safe Insights Project aims to build a data ecosystem for safety insights. And the Horizon Scanning service will help identify emerging risks. Research programmes supported by our £2.5m freight research pipeline are also in place to support longer, heavier, and faster freight trains.
The journey to achieving the 75% rail freight growth target will be a collaborative one. It will have strong safety, innovation, and sustainability principles at its core.
