The UK government has decided to slow down the building of the HS2 project. That pause, covering significant parts of the project, will inevitably have an impact on rail freight operations. The company formed to build the high-speed railway between London and Birmingham and beyond, HS2 Limited, has already said its committed to using rail freight for the bulk of the heavy lifting. However, the descoping of the project will inevitably mean fewer trains running day to day.

Rail freight has played a crucial role in the construction of HS2, with the sector having developed a large business in supplying materials and removing spoil all along the route. Upwards of 15,000 trains were expected to run over the decade long construction phase, but that figure was predicated on at least the construction of the core route and the phases that connect HS2 to the West Coast Main Line and to Manchester. The government cutbacks mean that rail freight will still play an important part in the construction of HS2, albeit at a lower rate, and over an extended period.

Compensate for negative impacts

HS2 is set to connect London and Birmingham with a new railway that will see the first and second cities of England brought together in under an hour – faster than at any time in history. However, the so-called pause on certain phases of the high speed railway project will have negative impacts on rail freight operations. Those impacts reverberate far beyond simply cancelling some of the 15,000 train-load movements anticipated in support of the construction of the 140 miles (230 km) long route.

The final fruits of the project, in terms of freeing up capacity for freight on the conventional main lines, still lies far into the future. It may be difficult to incorporate this prospect into current planning, but that doesn’t mean the implications have not been discussed at board rooms around Britain. One thing is sure: rail freight operators will have to find other ways to compensate for any negative impacts caused by the HS2 pause, which may well mean rail freight has to compensate by seeking new markets.

Longer term implications are good and not so good

There could be a positive reaction from the rail freight sector, which benefits the national economy overall. This could involve exploring new routes and destinations for goods, as well as developing new partnerships with other companies in order to expand the range of services offered. That would conceivably help answer a number of pressures on the UK economy, such as the shortage of long distance heavy goods vehicle drivers, and the desire to decarbonise industry.

Government sources have already admitted that the HS2 decisions are based on rising costs. It is therefore unlikely that any significant infrastructure projects will be brought forward to replace the HS2 work – certainly nothing on the scale of that project. However, the rail freight sector does continue to support other major rail infrastructure schemes. Among those that come to mind, there is the much and often changed Transpennine Route Upgrade; the re-building of East-West Rail which will directly connect Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester and Bletchley; and the Hope Valley Upgrade between Sheffield and Manchester. Ironically, that last project will provide more capacity for aggregates trains from a cluster of quarries in the north west of England, all of which supply significant tonnages to the HS2 project. Perhaps they’ll be pausing a little bit too.