From the Thames Tideway Tunnel to schemes such as the HS2 rail line, London Heathrow’s third runway and a possible Crossrail 2 project underneath London, the UK’s infrastructure pipeline dominates the headlines – good and bad. What attracts considerably less airtime is how we will build these once-in-a-generation projects and ensure we get the required materials in the right place at the right time.
There is now an expectation from many in the construction sector and policy-makers that rail freight can play an integral part in transporting the materials needed for these projects. It’s a view that Tarmac supports and encourages, but we also see the scope to use rail to transport materials such as cement and aggregates to smaller projects too. As one of the UK’s largest users of rail freight, we believe that building capacity into the rail network and improved access is vital to reducing congestion on roads, improving air quality and cutting CO2 emissions.
The facts are compelling. Rail freight produces 70% less CO2 per tonne transported than the equivalent road journey. One cement-laden train carries the equivalent of 45 trucks. While transporting by rail freight takes more planning, and requires more capital investment in infrastructure and assets than road transport, it is significantly cheaper over medium to long distances.
Rail freight growth
Despite a difficult time for the rail sector as a whole due to the decline of coal and steel, there has been an upward trajectory in the volumes of construction materials transported by rail in the UK in the past decade. Rail freight is now a key part of the construction supply chain, with 20Mt/yr of aggregates and cement moved by rail. Some 40% of construction materials used in London are now delivered by rail to a network of depots, helping to supply the material demands of housing, transport infrastructure and other development throughout the capital. From 1 January 2017 to 30 April 2017, the volume of construction materials transported by rail was up by 7% on the previous year.
However, there is even greater scope to drive modal shift and make rail freight the preferred transport solution for both infrastructure schemes and smaller development projects. This will require the rail and construction sectors to take collective steps and act in a cohesive manner to seize the opportunity.
Cross-industry partnership between rail network operators, freight companies, clients, contractors and materials providers is key and they all must have an excellent understanding of the National Infrastructure Plan and its likely impacts for rail freight.
Partnership working also has an important role to play in delivering coordinated planning, quality network capacity and investment in terminals which are all essential to help move more materials faster and on and off the network more easily.
Supply chain partnerships are vital in facilitating effective logistics plans. Clients and contractors can play important roles in helping to maximise the potential and effectiveness of rail freight for major infrastructure projects.
Early engagement with rail
Early engagement with materials providers is key to understanding the viability, benefits and implications of rail freight logistics to support delivery. This collaborative working should take place as early as possible to ensure operational solutions are considered from the initial stages of construction project planning. Site access, for example, is critical and clients and contractor design teams need to develop site designs that can support rail freight from the outset.
Early discussions can also play a key role in informing project sustainability targets and outcomes. Understanding the potential CO2 savings available by using rail both for inbound material supply and moving material out for disposal, it is possible to put in place challenging yet realistic environmental targets for supply chain partners.
In addition, strategic partnership planning at the earliest stages of projects is critical if we are to capitalise on the opportunity to create legacy rail infrastructure that will support the continued growth of freight traffic beyond the initial construction phases of projects. Railhead locations need to be carefully considered with future freight access in mind. This is particularly important in urban areas, where the need for more rail terminals to support construction traffic is most acute.
There’s also an opportunity for the planning system to drive the uptake of rail freight and encourage more clients to consider the most sustainable multi-modal logistics options, including a combination of road, rail and river transport. Local planning authorities should encourage developers and applicants to think in a different way so that construction logistics plans are given more scrutiny. Rather than simply detailing the transport logistics that have been considered to move materials to sites, an onus should be on applicants to explain a review of multi-modal options and provide reasons for them being discounted, if they are not appropriate.
Planning authorities also have a role to play in safeguarding existing, planned and potential rail depot sites, alongside wharfs and associated storage, handling and processing facilities, which are strategically important to ensure the sustainable supply of construction materials to support the infrastructure pipeline.
Tarmac’s vision
Tarmac is one of the UK’s largest private sector users of rail freight. We currently transport 9Mt/yr of material by rail across the country, supporting the reduction of CO2 from road vehicles and our commitment to reduce transport CO2 across our business.
Our extensive rail freight network is underpinned by more than 50 rail-connected quarries and cement plants, meaning we can focus on where materials are needed by customers without being confined to production locations. With an ambition to increase the volume of material transported by rail year-on-year, we’re increasing our capabilities. This includes the operation of new modern, efficient wagons right across our UK network.
As part of a balanced logistics portfolio, our rail network provides direct access to many city centres but we also think carefully about selecting the most sustainable transport options for the onward movement of materials to customer sites by road beyond the rail terminal.
For example, this might mean transporting materials into a city centre location in a moving floor trailer instead of using an eight wheeler tipper. This vehicle’s capacity can transport the same volume of materials in one journey as opposed to three.
Cement logistics
We are continually reviewing our rail capability with new terminals and new rail connections to quarries and cement plants. Our three UK cement plants at Tunstead in England, Dunbar in Scotland and Aberthaw in Wales are all connected to the rail network and have been for almost 100 years. At each of the sites we are enhancing our infrastructure and partnerships with freight partners to increase the volumes of packed and bulk cement which can be moved by rail.
From Tunstead, our plant in the Peak District, we moved the equivalent of 19,000 trucks off the road network and operated up to 12 cement trains a week in 2016. We are currently working with Network Rail to assess the feasibility of increasing the volume of materials which can be transported on freight trains through the Peak District, which would allow a higher volume of bulk cement to be moved from the site.
At Dunbar, we have developed our rail capability to ensure that we can transport bulk material and packed cement across Scotland and England. Activity at this site means that we have taken over 9300 trucks off the road in 2016 and are looking to increase this to over 14,000 in 2017.
In October 2016 we ran our first freight train from Aberthaw in over a decade, dispatching bulk cement to Tarmac depots across Wales and the south west of England. We were able to resume rail operations at the site quickly using an innovative approach to wagon loading. Wagons are filled overnight from road tankers during downtime, removing the need for fixed loading equipment and the associated expense. Since starting to operate trains from Aberthaw again we have removed over 3000 truck movements a year from the roads, equating to 25% of transport movements from the site.
As a business Tarmac firmly believes that there is a fantastic opportunity to drive modal shift and increase the volume of materials transported by rail across the construction industry as a whole in the UK. An optimised and efficient rail freight network can deliver materials at the right time with a low CO2 footprint, reduced congestion on the roads and improved air quality. It is now critical that the construction and rail sectors work together to seize the opportunity.