Should disused lines and preserved lines be reopened for freight use, to help provide capacity?

[flixtonman]

Well, as somebody who usually goes into a supermarket a couple of times a week, I've not seen 'gaps' in the display or consistently missing products. The fact you're citing frozen suggests a different issue altogether, because frozen items are at least protected from perishing. It's more likely that there is a shortage at source of the items, possibly down to a poor harvest last year.

Either way, rail is absolutely NOT the solution for food shipment though, nor is it the way forward for small consignments, despite what you seem to think.

The replies on here so far are mostly one-way: there is no arguable case for utilising heritage or preserved railways for anything other than their existing purpose, and no case at all for transporting perishable or frozen foodstuffs by any rail routes.
However, to refine the argument a little, is there a case for re-instating a few of the abandoned 'intra-city' rail lines? By this, I mean those suburban lines which spread out in all directions from our city centres but lost out to buses and, later, cars. Might they provide a railhead outside city centres for non-perishable goods, and reduce the volume of HGVs delivering such goods to our city centres. Some of the railheads might be no more than a few miles from a mainline, and would reduce the need for freight trains to take up paths through our city centres. I'm sorry to take a long time to make a simple point, but I guess I am saying: should we consider establishing freight railheads a few miles further out from where they now are?

 

[A0]

The replies on here so far are mostly one-way: there is no arguable case for utilising heritage or preserved railways for anything other than their existing purpose, and no case at all for transporting perishable or frozen foodstuffs by any rail routes.
However, to refine the argument a little, is there a case for re-instating a few of the abandoned 'intra-city' rail lines? By this, I mean those suburban lines which spread out in all directions from our city centres but lost out to buses and, later, cars. Might they provide a railhead outside city centres for non-perishable goods, and reduce the volume of HGVs delivering such goods to our city centres. Some of the railheads might be no more than a few miles from a mainline, and would reduce the need for freight trains to take up paths through our city centres. I'm sorry to take a long time to make a simple point, but I guess I am saying: should we consider establishing freight railheads a few miles further out from where they now are?

Simple answer - no.

If you're looking at food stores in city centres firstly they tend to be the "Metro" or "Local" stores - chances are the lorries making deliveries to them are delivering to more than one store.

Secondly, you're introducing extra legs into the distribution to stores which will inevitably slow ot down, increase the handling of goods, which increases the risk of damage.

Look at the replies Bald Rick has given about the best and most effective use of rail where freight is concerned - it really does answer all those questions and weird and frankly wacky suggestions about installing random freight hubs to ship boxes of cornflakes the final mile are a complete distraction.

 

[6Gman]

The replies on here so far are mostly one-way: there is no arguable case for utilising heritage or preserved railways for anything other than their existing purpose, and no case at all for transporting perishable or frozen foodstuffs by any rail routes.
However, to refine the argument a little, is there a case for re-instating a few of the abandoned 'intra-city' rail lines? By this, I mean those suburban lines which spread out in all directions from our city centres but lost out to buses and, later, cars. Might they provide a railhead outside city centres for non-perishable goods, and reduce the volume of HGVs delivering such goods to our city centres. Some of the railheads might be no more than a few miles from a mainline, and would reduce the need for freight trains to take up paths through our city centres. I'm sorry to take a long time to make a simple point, but I guess I am saying: should we consider establishing freight railheads a few miles further out from where they now are?

Your idea would be clearer if you gave us a potential example.

 

[Hadders]

An average supermarket distribution centre delivering fresh food to stores will have over 200 suppliers delivering inbound supplies every day. This stock comes from across the UK and Europe. Some of it is delivered directly by suppliers, and some of it is back halued by the distribution centre's own fleet on the return journey from store deliveries.

Deliveries are very tightly timed. Typically inbound supply is timed to arrive in the afternoon, individual orders are picked late afternoon and into the evening and stock is dispatched to stores throughout the early hours of the morning. The stock is merchandised onto the supermarket shelves ready for opening time (or earlier if the store picks orders for home delivery)

I'm sorry but rail simply isn't viable for this type of operation. Containers from Felixstowe port on the other hand can (and often do) go by rail.