In the Battle to Reduce CO2 Emissions, some Modest but Welcome Progress from East of England Railfreight

In the battle to save the planet, there are many fronts – and rail can play its part too.

Over the last 10 years or so a lot of EU and UK money went into improving the rail line from Felixstowe to Nuneaton to take the new higher and longer sea containers. The final stage was commissioned last summer and the maximum number of container trains between Felixstowe Docks and Nuneaton has now been increased from 33 to 47 journeys in each direction.

Some of these trains go cross-country to the Midlands, the North West and to Scotland now no longer need to use the West Coast Main Line between North London and Nuneaton. This improves rail capacities for us locally and all along the line from Euston to Birmingham. Other trains go north through the East Midlands and the East Coast and these rail improvements have enabled the Doncaster Railfreight Interchange, which opened only 18 months ago, now to be served by a fifth container train per day from Felixstowe. These extra trains to Doncaster take lorry traffic off the A14, A5, A120 and the M1, A1(M) and the M11.

When you consider that the average freight train replaces 76 lorries (which is equivalent to over 300 cars), you can see that not only is road traffic and air pollution significantly reduced, but road safety is also improved.