Business | General
Transport witnesses a slow switch to rail and water
High fuel prices and drive for cleaner modes facilitate the shift.
- Robert Wright, Financial Times
- Published: 23:50 April 20, 2008
Trends
In the UK, ports such as Teesport, near Middlesbrough, have grown rapidly, as companies have switched from bringing all their shipments in through one southern port and moving them onward by land.
Many now bring some goods via Rotterdam or other big continental ports to smaller regional facilities.
When the world's biggest container shipping lines launched a new service to highlight the industry's positive contribution to the world economy and environment in January, one claim attracted instant queries.
The industry was making itself more environmentally friendly, executives said, by reducing vessels' speeds to cut fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
Sceptics pointed out that most lines had cited commercial considerations when they announced their speed reductions.
With fuel prices nearly doubling in a year and a surfeit of ships following the US consumer slowdown, they seemed more concerned with saving money and soaking up excess capacity than saving the environment.
The moment summed up many questions surrounding transport businesses' claims to be acting in a more environmentally friendly fashion. With oil prices at record highs and staffing and other costs rising, the economic arguments for using less fuel-intensive - and cleaner - transport modes are growing more compelling.
Water-borne transport can often shift goods in larger blocks with less fuel per tonne of cargo moved than land-borne alternatives. Land and water use fuel more sparingly than air.
The low friction of steel wheels on steel rails mean trains consume far less energy per tonne moved than road transport - a difference that, together with a shortage of drivers, is pushing many US trucking companies to hand long-haul to railroads.
Improving engine technology presents a strong argument for a more environmentally friendly version of an existing vehicle, even where there is no scope to move to a cleaner mode.
In many countries rail and water have reliability advantages over increasingly congested roads, while the arguments for ships, trucks or trains carrying non-time-critical goods more slowly to save fuel become stronger as the oil price rises.
Yet it is hard to find transport operators or their customers who believe changes are being made.
John Smith, managing director of First GB Rail freight, a fast-growing British rail freight operator, says that, until recently, the only consumer goods moving by rail were those coming from outside the UK at ports.
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