Where's everyone going?

[redlig]

Perhaps I'm not reading it right but I cannot see the % of rail to road, air or water .

 

[Domdom]

Genuine question here cos I don’t have much knowledge on the subject.
The posts about double handling seem logical, but would a system of RORO not work with the complete truck? Gets them off the road and means less driven hours. Just a thought.

 

[Mick Annick]

The road v rail debate has been rumbling on for years, and as @DanZac says we no longer have the need nor infrastructure to deliver small consignments by rail. The UK is also a relatively small country - rail makes more sense over long distances, in the UK most of the country can be reached by truck in a single shift, they’d still be shunting out of the sidings with a train when the truck arrived.

Where the UK does use rail it has to be efficient to compete, and those operations that do are pretty good. I used to be involved in a rail service between Dagenham and Halewood, two trains a day each way shifting new Fords, loaded both ways, and two trains a week Dagenham to Exeter for the West Country. At Dagenham Halewood product came straight off of the train onto the dock for export.

Fiat also used trains to bring cars into Portbury direct from Italy. Peugeot / Citroen used to rail cars from across France to Calais then put them on a boat to the UK

 

[DanZac]

A lot of the BMW Minis still go from Cowley to Southampton by train for export, as does the JLR stuff from Birmingham, all in specially designed covered wagons. They drive then on from the production line and straight off the other end onto the boat. It's jobs like that that rail is excellent for.

 

[Mick Annick]

A lot of the BMW Minis still go from Cowley to Southampton by train for export, as does the JLR stuff from Birmingham, all in specially designed covered wagons. They drive then on from the production line and straight off the other end onto the boat. It's jobs like that that rail is excellent for.

I’m saving up for a model of the ones we used to run: https://revolutiontrains.com/?s=silcock+express+&post_type=product

 

[nickk]

Slight deviation,is there much canal use other than the Manchester one,I read some years ago that Sainsbury’s and a gravel extractor was experimenting with this. Is Goole used ?

 

[Robotstar5]

The road v rail debate has been rumbling on for years, and as @DanZac says we no longer have the need nor infrastructure to deliver small consignments by rail. The UK is also a relatively small country - rail makes more sense over long distances, in the UK most of the country can be reached by truck in a single shift, they’d still be shunting out of the sidings with a train when the truck arrived.

Where the UK does use rail it has to be efficient to compete, and those operations that do are pretty good. I used to be involved in a rail service between Dagenham and Halewood, two trains a day each way shifting new Fords, loaded both ways, and two trains a week Dagenham to Exeter for the West Country. At Dagenham Halewood product came straight off of the train onto the dock for export.

Fiat also used trains to bring cars into Portbury direct from Italy. Peugeot / Citroen used to rail cars from across France to Calais then put them on a boat to the UK

Rover at Longbridge had extensive railway sidings, parts came in by rail and cars went out the same way, the building I was in had it's own siding so fork lift trucks would unload pallets from the wagons, the wagons were special "double deckers" with pallets stacked 2 high, once the FLT had removed the top row the floor was lifted by electric motors to allow the FLT's to unload the bottom row.

This was the sidings next to my building, it was part of the Halesowen branch that bought workers to the factory from 1915 - 1960.

They even had their own shunters

 

[Robotstar5]

A lot of the BMW Minis still go from Cowley to Southampton by train for export, as does the JLR stuff from Birmingham, all in specially designed covered wagons. They drive then on from the production line and straight off the other end onto the boat. It's jobs like that that rail is excellent for.

There was talk of connecting JLR Solihull to the rail network, but it was too expensive so everything went in and out by road.

 

[Mick Annick]

There was talk of connecting JLR Solihull to the rail network, but it was too expensive so everything went in and out by road.

Not surprising, the plant was built in a hole in the ground!

 

[MattF]

Commercial doesn't have to , more could go by train if we had an efficient train system.

So trades aren't classed as commercial then? They going to whack their tools & other gear on a train or bus, are they?

 

[Greeves246]

That was supposedly one of the ideas behind HS2, that more road cargo would be moved on trains, on the old rail lines, and passengers would all go on the new high speed routes.

But double handling of everything would be the crippler. Even if everything were in 40’ containers, it needs to get to the station loading yard, by truck, be craned onto a train, then the same at the other end, with attendant time delays, paperworks, waiting around, dozens of trucks queuing up for loading/unloading etc.

But in the past we had BRS , (British Road Services) with a depot next to the main line and Royal Mail not DPD, Evri, Yodel, Parcel Force, etc etc, etc with huge warehouses scattered everywhere with multiple artics on a crowded road network.

 

[redlig]

So trades aren't classed as commercial then? They going to whack their tools & other gear on a train or bus, are they?

That doesn't require a comment ,so I won't!