Freight growth

At Network Rail, we work with our customers and potential customers to get more freight on the railway.

Our Freight team champions freight across the country and works to identify capacity for new traffic on the network.

We’re connecting more UK businesses to the rail network through innovative solutions. These include multiple occupancy campus sites in key urban areas to Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges (SRFI). We’re also investing in our infrastructure to make rail freight faster and more reliable for our customers.

Freight Growth in Scotland

In Scotland we’ve launched an ambitious plan to grow the amount freight on the rail network by 2024. The Scottish Government set a 7.5% growth target in the High Level Output Specification, published in March 2018. It outlines the funding available for the railway between 2019 and 2024.

The plan, which was developed by the wider industry sets out what is required to support rail freight growth. It also looks at improving the average speed a freight train can travel and increasing reliability meaning that more trains reach their destination on time.

There are over 600 freight trains running on the UK network every single day with around 50 of these trains running in Scotland delivering goods 24 hours of the day. Rail transported over 4 million tonnes of product in the last 12 months, travelling over 1,155,000 thousand net tonne miles.

Growth forecasting

Network Rail works with industry partners to establish long-term forecasts of market growth for the rail freight sector. These provide us with an informed picture of potential future demand, so that we can continue working to improve our network to ensure it will be capable of meeting that demand.

2023/24, 2033/34 and 2043/44 forecasts

For reports on GB rail freight forecasts for 2023/24 and for 2033/34 & 2043/44 and report on the routeing of these forecasts see the Freight planning section on our Long Term planning page.