UK Railways Shake-Up
UK Railways Shake-Up
The UK Government announced a plan to reform the UK railway system, setting up a new public body, Great British Railways, to run and plan the rail network, own the infrastructure, and receive the fare revenue. This new structure will allow private companies to arrange contracts to run trains, and the aim is to lower costs for passengers. In the freight sector, procedures are planned for protecting rail freight services, and new targets may also be set for freight.
Meanwhile, UK rail freight statistics show that the proportion of freight moved by rail has decreased. In 2018, 8.9% of freight moved in Great ritain was by train, a 0.2 percentage point decrease compared with the previous year. In 2019/20, the total amount of rail freight transported decreased to 16.6 billion net tonne kilometres, a 4.6% decrease on 2018/19.