LORD Tony Berkeley, chairman of the Rail Freight Group
LORD Tony Berkeley, chairman of the Rail Freight Group, has called for a speed- up in the progress towards creating a ‘24/7’ railway.
Speaking at the opening of Infrarail 2008 at the NEC in Birmingham, Lord Berkeley said he had “not been terribly impressed” by a statement from a Network Rail official who said that the 24/7 railway was ‘unlikely’ until 2030.
“We would like it a bit sooner than that,” he told an audience at the opening ceremony, which included transport minister Tom Harris and Network Rail’s group infrastructure director, Peter Henderson.
He went on to say that freight companies wanted good diversionary routes and reasonable capacity.
“We have to work a lot harder to achieve that. This is what is needed to keep rail freight going.”
Later he attacked the decision to keep engineering trains in possessions to what he claimed was a maximum four miles per hour.
“I don’t want to see long possessions, and trains running at 4mph is not helpful in speeding up what you can do in a possession time.
“I hope Network Rail can do something about this. The network needs to be kept open for customers.”
He added that, despite issues to be sorted out, the railways were a “growing and successful” industry.
Earlier Peter Henderson said that rail freight in the UK had risen by 60 per cent
in the past 10 years. There had been “substantial” investment in the network for the past five years and projects included work to enhance freight routes and reduce bottlenecks.
Andrew Sharpe, director of standards and technical services for the Rail Safety and Standards Board, said there was no reference in the Rule Book to a speed limit of four miles per hour within worksites inside possessions.
There had been a recent rule change about permitted speed made at the request of Network Rail, but it was the introduction of ‘walking pace’ as the default speed for trains in worksites, if the driver is given no other instructions by the engineering supervisor.