[jambutty]

Originally Posted by entwisi

as for shifting freight to railways, They stuggle to cope with teh current workload never mind the extra that is being suggested. Does this mean we should spend billions on upgrading railways or look at other ways...

Problems are there to be solved and not just brushed aside and hope that they go away. But then that is a ‘can do’ attitude which sadly these days has turned into a ‘can’t be done’ attitude.

The current workload is related to the passenger service, which as you have to admit is different to freight. There is plenty of safe capacity to run an hourly freight service between the major towns and cities without interfering with the passenger service. Pick any point on a main line and count the trains that go by in the same direction. In most cases you would probably be lucky to see one an hour.

Without advocating a return to steam but when I was a kid and well into the fifties and sixties there were more freight trains than passenger trains. And in those days the car wasn’t god so most people travelled by train. They coped OK in those far off days. So why can’t they do it today?