linmanfu
Member
British Rail pulled out of livestock traffic in 1973 or 1975 (sources vary), so it has been many decades since livestock wagons have been manufactured in the UK.
But if new livestock wagons were to be built, would they look like in the 21st century?
Minimum requirements
Why might British railways get back into livestock traffic?
In the last couple of decades, the tendency has been for slaughtering of domestic production to be centralized at a smaller number of larger abattoirs. Meat sales have moved from butchers, who would naturally get meat from local abattoirs and were largely price takers, to supermarkets, who prefer centralized distribution systems and impose ferocious pressure to reduce prices (so the economies of scale of larger abattoirs become more important). At some point, it might become economic to move livestock from regional collection hubs to a handful of very large abattoirs.
In addition, the UK's climate change commitments mean that it needs to reduce its use of fossil fuels. Moving freight from fossil-fuel HGVs to electrified railways is one way to do that.
But if new livestock wagons were to be built, would they look like in the 21st century?
Minimum requirements
- They would be air-braked as is now standard for all freight wagons.
- They would need to conform with the European Convention for the Protection of Animals during International Transport. The key parts are:
- Art. 6.1: "Animals shall be provided with adequate space and, unless special conditions require to the contrary, room to lie down."
- Art. 6.3: "During transport and handling, containers shall always be kept upright and shall not be exposed to severe jolts or shaking."
- Art. 6.4: "Animals shall not be left more than 24 hours without being fed and watered."
- Art. 13: "Animals shall only be loaded into ... vehicles ... which have been thoroughly cleaned. Dead animals, litter and excrements [sic] shall be removed as soon as possible."
- Art. 17: " If no [railway] trucks particularly adapted for transport of animals are obtainable, animals shall be carried in covered trucks which are capable of travelling at high speed and are provided with sufficiently large air vents. They shall be constructed so as to prevent animals from escaping and ensure their safety. The interior sides of the trucks shall be of wood or other suitable material completely smooth and fitted with rings or bars at suitable height to which the animals may be attached."
- (BTW this is a Council of Europe standard, so Brexit is irrelevant.)
- I think it would be hard to justify the cost of air conditioning, so most of the sides of the vehicles would be taken up with ventilation panels.
- Since we no longer allow the disposal of human waste onto the track, we wouldn't allow animal urine and excrement either. So they would need some kind of floor drainage and a storage tank, as livestock wagons on ferries had.
- The vehicles would need near-human levels of ride quality and would travel at speeds similar to passenger vehicles, so the wagons must have bogies, which work well with longer rather than shorter wagons.
It wasn't due to any any technological obstacle. Livestock is still carried by rail in the US. In Australia's Northern Territory, rail livestock traffic did not peak until the 1980s and while it closed in 1998, there are plans to reintroduce it. Livestock wagons were and still could be built if operators wanted them.
Nor was it due to animal welfare concerns. Those of us who have the misfortune to use Pacers or Azumas know that passenger comfort hasn't always been the highest concern of British railway operators, but we weren't literally being treated worse than cattle! If people can be humanely carried for long distances, so can animals.
British Rail chose to pull out of livestock traffic because demand had fallen. The mid-twentieth century saw the rise of motor vehicles that could compete with the railway on speed and cost, but had the added advantage of being more flexible. This was because the UK government created a network of motorways for the long-distance part of journeys, while local authorities provided relatively high-quality roads for the first mile from the farm.
In addition, the electrification of society in the mid-20th century changed the nature of the meat market. In the Americas, the early twentieth century was the heyday of cattle being driven en masse to the railhead and then transported to the giant meatpacking plants of Chicago, Fray Bentos, or Kansas City. Refrigerated wagons took the chilled or frozen meat to the port, then the great reefer ships brought it across the oceans from the Americas (and sometimes Australasia) to Great Britain. The abattoirs, wagons, and reefers all used mechanical refrigeration, which had very high capital costs. The small volumes of domestic production in Great Britain and Ireland could not justify this expensive equipment and most farms were within easy reach of metropolitan markets by rail (and later HGVs), so the animals were slaughtered close to the consumer.
In the second half of the 20th century, the spread of electric, containerized, and computerized refrigeration changed this situation. Since the cold chain could begin at small-scale producers, it was more profitable to slaughter the livestock close to the farm and then transport the chilled meat to consumers and the by-products to industry (the meat alone is never profitable). In addition, meat production in Great Britain and Ireland rose considerably, not because more animals were raised, but because scientific breeding and industrialized farming increased the quantity of meat obtained from each animal.
Nor was it due to animal welfare concerns. Those of us who have the misfortune to use Pacers or Azumas know that passenger comfort hasn't always been the highest concern of British railway operators, but we weren't literally being treated worse than cattle! If people can be humanely carried for long distances, so can animals.
British Rail chose to pull out of livestock traffic because demand had fallen. The mid-twentieth century saw the rise of motor vehicles that could compete with the railway on speed and cost, but had the added advantage of being more flexible. This was because the UK government created a network of motorways for the long-distance part of journeys, while local authorities provided relatively high-quality roads for the first mile from the farm.
In addition, the electrification of society in the mid-20th century changed the nature of the meat market. In the Americas, the early twentieth century was the heyday of cattle being driven en masse to the railhead and then transported to the giant meatpacking plants of Chicago, Fray Bentos, or Kansas City. Refrigerated wagons took the chilled or frozen meat to the port, then the great reefer ships brought it across the oceans from the Americas (and sometimes Australasia) to Great Britain. The abattoirs, wagons, and reefers all used mechanical refrigeration, which had very high capital costs. The small volumes of domestic production in Great Britain and Ireland could not justify this expensive equipment and most farms were within easy reach of metropolitan markets by rail (and later HGVs), so the animals were slaughtered close to the consumer.
In the second half of the 20th century, the spread of electric, containerized, and computerized refrigeration changed this situation. Since the cold chain could begin at small-scale producers, it was more profitable to slaughter the livestock close to the farm and then transport the chilled meat to consumers and the by-products to industry (the meat alone is never profitable). In addition, meat production in Great Britain and Ireland rose considerably, not because more animals were raised, but because scientific breeding and industrialized farming increased the quantity of meat obtained from each animal.
Why might British railways get back into livestock traffic?
In the last couple of decades, the tendency has been for slaughtering of domestic production to be centralized at a smaller number of larger abattoirs. Meat sales have moved from butchers, who would naturally get meat from local abattoirs and were largely price takers, to supermarkets, who prefer centralized distribution systems and impose ferocious pressure to reduce prices (so the economies of scale of larger abattoirs become more important). At some point, it might become economic to move livestock from regional collection hubs to a handful of very large abattoirs.
In addition, the UK's climate change commitments mean that it needs to reduce its use of fossil fuels. Moving freight from fossil-fuel HGVs to electrified railways is one way to do that.
I contribute to the open-source transport simulation Simutrans. Our simulation of British transport does not currently have post-1975 livestock wagons. However, this is not a great decision. Operators are not given advance knowledge of vehicle availability (production end dates are hidden), so livestock wagons should not inexplicably become unavailable at an apparently arbitrary date — perhaps just after you've built a new railway to a sheep-farming region.
In addition, BR's decision was driven by falling demand for livestock traffic by rail. Those factors do not apply in Simutrans for reasons that I explore in detail on the International Simutrans Forum, if you are interested. Some of that post has been reproduced here.
So I need to design livestock wagons for the post-1975 era.
In addition, BR's decision was driven by falling demand for livestock traffic by rail. Those factors do not apply in Simutrans for reasons that I explore in detail on the International Simutrans Forum, if you are interested. Some of that post has been reproduced here.
So I need to design livestock wagons for the post-1975 era.
