What percenrage of the UK railway lines has freight running over it?

[infobleep]

Apologies if this has been asked before but I didn't see anything.

What percentage of the UK rail network has freight trains running over it? I don't mean engineering trains but actual freight.

Are there any lines that don't see freight at all?

 

[6Gman]

Apologies if this has been asked before but I didn't see anything.

What percentage of the UK rail network has freight trains running over it? I don't mean engineering trains but actual freight.

Are there any lines that don't see freight at all?

There will be plenty with no freight trains on that definition.

And more with very little freight.

 

[Bald Rick]

There’s whole swathes of the network with no commercial freight, especially on commuter heavy routes around the major cities. On the third rail network it’s much easier to state which lines do have freight!

 

[zwk500]

Page 41 (in the file, numbered 39 on the document) has the answer as of about 5 years ago: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Routeing-of-rail-freight-forecasts.pdf

I don't know if these are all booked schedules rather than number of trains that actually run.

 

[infobleep]

On a slightly related note, are there such things as private sidings on the rail network these days? These were, in my understanding, sidings where companies owned the track, perhaps behind gate, which was connected to the rail network.

 

[Bald Rick]

On a slightly related note, are there such things as private sidings on the rail network these days? These were, in my understanding, sidings where companies owned the track, perhaps behind gate, which was connected to the rail network.

Yes, lots.

 

[Peregrine 4903]

The Sussex route in particular doesn't have much freight, probably the lowest amount of freight on all the Network Rail routes across the country.

 

[Roast Veg]

The Sussex route in particular doesn't have much freight, probably the lowest amount of freight on all the Network Rail routes across the country.

Or perhaps the Thameslink core...

 

[zwk500]

Or perhaps the Thameslink core...

'Route' in this sense being the NR area, rather than individual lines.

 

[507020]

Page 41 (in the file, numbered 39 on the document) has the answer as of about 5 years ago: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Routeing-of-rail-freight-forecasts.pdf

I don't know if these are all booked schedules rather than number of trains that actually run.

This is very interesting to look at. There is obviously no freight on any of Merseyrail or on branch lines that lead to extremities, but I’m surprised that the highest density is confined to the central section of the WCML in the West Midlands and not found closer to London. Is there any reason why more freight goes via Northampton than doesn’t?

 

[lione87023]

This is very interesting to look at. There is obviously no freight on any of Merseyrail or on branch lines that lead to extremities, but I’m surprised that the highest density is confined to the central section of the WCML in the West Midlands and not found closer to London. Is there any reason why more freight goes via Northampton than doesn’t?

Because the ’Old Line’ via Weedon is a fast route with (pre COVID) 10 expresses an hour (9 Avanti and one WMT EUS-CRE) off-peak. There are no passing loops on this 2 track railway. There are, however, goods loops at Northampton.

Most freight traffic has a max speed of 75mph and when container trains occasionally do get diverted via Weedon (if there’s problems via Northampton) they end up delaying at least one fast service by up to 15 minutes.

Some freight is booked to run via Weedon but it’s generally at night and/or when the Northampton loop is under engineering possession.

 

[yorksrob]

Page 41 (in the file, numbered 39 on the document) has the answer as of about 5 years ago: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Routeing-of-rail-freight-forecasts.pdf

I don't know if these are all booked schedules rather than number of trains that actually run.

My goodness, the Great Central would have been handy for some of that SE/NW traffic !

 

[zwk500]

Because the ’Old Line’ via Weedon is a fast route...

On top of all this, there's also Daventry RIFT

 

[The Planner]

My goodness, the Great Central would have been handy for some of that SE/NW traffic !

Such as?

 

[Gloster]

I was wondering what freight trains were running in 2016/17 between East Somerset Junction and Cogload. For that matter, I am surprised that there was enough to make it one a day in Devon and Cornwall: I would have thought that other than around St Blazey there would not have been much other than the clay. (Or does running the clay in two parts to Exeter Riverside push up the numbers.) Just idle musing.

 

[zwk500]

I was wondering what freight trains were running in 2016/17 between East Somerset Junction and Cogload. For that matter, I am surprised that there was enough to make it one a day in Devon and Cornwall: I would have thought that other than around St Blazey there would not have been much other than the clay. (Or does running the clay in two parts to Exeter Riverside push up the numbers.) Just idle musing.

These may well just be all scheduled class 4, 6, 7 and 8 paths, rather than trains that were actually running.

 

[30907]

My goodness, the Great Central would have been handy for some of that SE/NW traffic !

Except that the GC went via the East Mids, Sheffield and Woodhead to the Eastern side of Manchester, which is not where the key flows are.
The map does show what a major freight artery the WCML and F2N are.
It also shows a heavy overlap between busy freight and busy longer distsnce passenger routes - West of England perhaps one of the bigger exceptions.

 

[yorksrob]

Such as?

Anything going from the NE to the SW that we couldn't fit on the WCML.

 

[zwk500]

Anything going from the NE to the SW that we couldn't fit on the WCML.

Would you have suggested building a line for this traffic if no line had existed previously?

 

[swt_passenger]

Apologies if this has been asked before but I didn't see anything.

What percentage of the UK rail network has freight trains running over it? I don't mean engineering trains but actual freight.

Are there any lines that don't see freight at all?

I don’t think your local Portsmouth direct gets any routine freight nowadays, since the oil traffic finished. Significant areas of the SE will only ever see engineers or aggregates, the routes are often not cleared for containers.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Is there stil a freight service from Dounreay (Georgemas Junction)?

 

[infobleep]

Thanks for the responses. Interesting.

I don’t think your local Portsmouth direct gets any routine freight nowadays, since the oil traffic finished. Significant areas of the SE will only ever see engineers or aggregates, the routes are often not cleared for containers.

I do remember seeing freight trains running through in the past but not recently that's for sure. Not that I'm actively seeking them out.

 

[yorksrob]

Would you have suggested building a line for this traffic if no line had existed previously?

We already are (it's called HS2).

Would have been cheaper and less disruptive if we'd just shoved freight onto the existing one.

 

[The Planner]

We already are (it's called HS2).

Would have been cheaper and less disruptive if we'd just shoved freight onto the existing one.

We have done this a million times before though, where was it going once it gets down south? It was of no use from the NW.

 

[DarloRich]

Such as?

such as old railway line > Beeching > nostalgia.

 

[swt_passenger]

We have done this a million times before though, where was it going once it gets down south? It was of no use from the NW.

It seems a lot more often than that…

 

[Freightmaster]

Is there stil a freight service from Dounreay (Georgemas Junction)?

Yes!

6M98 - https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:H17019/2021-09-16/detailed




MARK

 

[yorksrob]

We have done this a million times before though, where was it going once it gets down south? It was of no use from the NW.

It reaches the same tangle of yards in NW London that the other routes reach.

 

[zwk500]

It reaches the same tangle of yards in NW London that the other routes reach.

No it doesn't, it's in a tunnel a couple of hundred of meters south of the Yards.

 

[yorksrob]

No it doesn't, it's in a tunnel a couple of hundred of meters south of the Yards.

Via the joint line it ends up at North Pole with all of its links to Willesden Junction and the North London lines.