Rail freight and sustainable urban distribution: Potential and practice

Journal of Transport Geography 14 (2006) 309–320 www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo

Rail freight and sustainable urban distribution: Potential and practice John Dinwoodie

*

Centre for International Shipping and Logistics, University of Plymouth Business School, CKY 405b, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, UK

Abstract How far can rail freight developments reduce lorry movements and promote sustainable urban distribution when planners discard economically infeasible projects? To expand current dedicated bulk long rail hauls, marginally viable, from Plymouth, UK, potential rail traffics must tap capacity to treble output and cut unit costs. Potentially, aggregated inter-county bulk road movements imply viable train hauls from upgraded railhead facilities. Optimal configurations of enhanced loading, storage and processing facilities and port-railhead links proffer reduced ship demurrage costs with upgraded port handling and relocated petroleumloading facilities creating employment and further reducing lorry movements. However, in practice, non-viable developments are not sustainable. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Sustainable urban distribution; Rail freight developments

1. Background Although transportation costs feature widely in spatial theory, explicit analysis of freight and goods transport in planning and evaluating spatial policies is often neglected (Hesse and Rodrigue, 2004). This case study concludes that urban authorities will only adopt sustainable urban freight distribution strategies if they satisfy broader policy objectives and commercial corporate interests. Both groups seek strategies that maximise, inter alia, the market potential of developments, entailing either cost leadership offering clients unique cost advantages, or market differentiation creating a unique range and level of services.

*

Tel.: +44 1752 232446; fax: +44 1752 232249. E-mail address: [email protected]

0966-6923/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2005.06.001

Local authorities seeking to maximise employment and income creation must deliver sustainable strategies that offer commercial clients optimal cost-effective solutions at each stage in the chain of decisions which add value between initial sourcing of materials, processing, production, and distribution to final consumers. Sustainable urban freight distribution strategies promote efficient distribution and generate decongestion, economic and environmental benefits (DETR, 1999). Where feasible, distribution strategies that transfer freight from urban roads to environmentally sustainable rail and marine systems potentially optimise transport infrastructure usage and relieve pressures on finite urban road space and demands for road developments. Reduced urban congestion and delays associated with such strategies deliver economic benefits which cut operator delivery costs and generate regional multiplier impacts. Potentially, urban decongestion generates time savings for operators and other

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road users. Reductions in lorry miles in urban areas offer environmental benefits and fewer vehicular emissions of airborne pollutants (Browne and Allen, 1999). Reduced fears of lorry-induced noise, pollution and accident risks may encourage more motorists to consider sustainable cycling and walking trip options (DETR, 1998). This case study reviews major local freight movements and assesses local corporate reactions to more sustainable rail freight developments proposed in Local Plans to facilitate major bulk traffics through Plymouth UK. All terminals, including ports like Plymouth, require land. Located on BritainÕs southwest peninsula and surrounded by sea and moors, international port functions at the land-sea interface have both shaped the city (Charlton and Gibb, 1991) and constrained development (Dinwoodie, 2003). Planners manage intense economic competition for urban space that discourages sustainable land-hungry port and rail freight developments. To combat congestion, transport solutions imply infrastructure development and revised management policies. The Local Plan (Plymouth City Council, PCC, 2002) emphasises implications for employment, land use and the environment of promoting sustainable distribution, against a shortfall of 20 hectares (ha) of new employment land provision required by the County Structure Plan. Brownfield sites must also contribute to economic regeneration and improvements in transport services, and development proposals must be environmentally acceptable. A baseline position identified an inadequate rail network with no intermodal freight interchange (PCC, 2001). Five kilometres (km) inland from Cattedown Wharves, Tavistock Junction (TJP) was identified as suitable for road/rail freight interchange and lorry parking (for on-line maps see PCC, 2002). Additional external funding through the Local Transport Plan was proposed to safeguard operational railway land and promote modal integration. Section 2 briefly outlines the structure and ownership of UK rail freight, noting the role and operation of subsidy in promoting sustainable urban freight distribution strategies within commercial decisions driven by value-networks, before considering regional issues. Framed within a value-chain analysis Section 3 outlines methodologies to evaluate strategies promoting the cost competitiveness and scale of local movements, or differentiate services. Section 4 proposes modal cost simulations to evaluate the potential for major inter-county bulk road movements to transfer to rail. Section 5 assesses the impacts of developments proposed to facilitate transfers considering operational issues, investment priorities, and their environmental impacts. Section 6 outlines requirements for further work and some policy implications.

2. Rail freight in Britain 2.1. The rail freight industry Until 1996, British Rail owned and managed BritainÕs rail freight operations. Since then, licensed safe operators as private commercial freight operating companies may, but are not obliged to, offer services moving goods by rail provided suitable agreements allowing access to tracks have been negotiated with Network Rail. Such agreements involve payment of a Track Access Charge. To move goods by rail, manufacturers or distributors may approach logistics service providers, freight aggregators or operating companies. English Welsh and Scottish Railways have managed most bulk freight operations including coal, steel, construction materials, oil and international movements via the Channel Tunnel and operated a wagonload enterprise network for less than full trainload traffics. Freightliner Ltd. manages domestic container services carrying chemicals, cars and rail infrastructure. Direct Rail Services haul nuclear materials and general Anglo-Scottish freight. GB Railfreight operates engineering and infrastructure trains for Network Rail and intermodal services from ports. Despite recent optimism (Haywood, 1999), rail accounted for only 7% of UK domestic freight tonne km (tkm) in the 1990s, and 5% of goods lifted (DfT, 2003). Although coalÕs share of rail freight lifted rose from 31% in 1995–1996 to 47% of 88.9 million (M)t in 2003–2004, tonnage lifted fell by 8% (SRA, 2004). As reducing domestic coal production demanded hauls of imports from ports rather than mines to power stations, mean coal rail haul increased 72% and annual goods moved, by 61% (Table 1). Mean distances of non-coal movements already double those of coal, increased by 60%. Long-hauls sectors are construction, including stone from Somerset to South East England and oil, from ports to industrial areas. Major container flows as domestic intermodal or international traffic largely avoid South West England, with Bristol the nearest intermodal facility and Southampton and Cardiff the nearest ports with Freightliner facilities for handling containers. 2.2. Rail freight subsidy Although government policies have not always favoured the international competitiveness of railways (Heaver, 1993) local developments must necessarily interact with systems at higher levels. Nationally, BritainÕs Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) offered Rail Freight Grants (RFG) to encourage licensed freight operators to access the rail network. Track Access Grants (TAG) assist in financing Track Access Agreements, incorporating fixed charges to access the network

J. Dinwoodie / Journal of Transport Geography 14 (2006) 309–320

311

Table 1 Rail freight flows and mean haul Commodity

Goods moveda 2003/4

Mean haulb 2003/4

Coal Metals Construction Oil and petroleum International Domestic intermodal Other All non-coal

5.8 2.4 2.7 1.2 0.5 3.5 2.8 13.1

138

Total

18.9

a b c d

Goods movedc 1995/6

Mean hauld 1995/6

3.6 1.7 2.3 1.8

80 113 200 286

279

3.9 9.7

173 175

213

13.3

133

Bnkkmpa, SRA (2004). km, SRA (2004). Goods moved/goods lifted. Bnkkmpa, DfT (2003, Table 5.12). km, DfT (2003, Table 5.12). Last year for which commodity data available.

and usage-related charges. TAG payments acknowledge that per unit movement, rail incurs fewer accidents, congestion and environmental costs than road. Freight Facilities Grant (FFG) assists in offsetting the capital costs of rail infrastructure. If the public interest gains from particular goods being carried by rail, then FFG should provide for sufficient capital facilities to ensure that this occurs, given an operatorÕs commitment to rail based on reliable traffic forecasts. FFG payments are withheld where rail movement would be commercially viable without them, no road alternative is possible, or environmental benefits are insufficient. If the public interest gains from particular goods travelling by rail which would otherwise travel by road, TAG becomes payable based on net savings in Sensitive Lorry Miles (SLM). Alternative journeys by road and rail are costed and appraised financially. In 2002, the environmental benefits of each mile of lorry movement avoided were estimated at £1.50p (SLM1) for urban single and non grade-separated dual carriageway roads, £1.00p (SLM2) for rural single carriageway roads and £0.20p (SLM3) for motorways, rural and urban grade-separated dual carriageway roads. A revised rating (SRA, 2003) defines seven bands, applicable to rail and water transfers. On motorways, congestion could be low £0.04p (SR1), medium 6 0.27p (SR2) or high £0.69p (SR3). On rural and urban roads rates are £0.53p (SR4) on Trunk and Principal routes and £0.45p (SR5) on others. Rates in conurbations on Trunk and Principal routes are £1.38 (SR6) and £1.74 (SR7) on other roads. Grant calculations consider the tonnage for each flow, revenues, costs of haulage, capital, administration and handling for road and rail, and rail access charges. Grant should cover any negative net present value to rail after net cash flows of rail versus road are discounted (SRA, 2002). The number of rail freight grants awarded in Britain rose from 3 in 1994–1995 to 36 in 2000–2001, and rail

freight moved increased from 13.0 to 18.1 billion net tonne kilometres (Bntkm) (SRA, 2004). To realise 80% further growth by 2010–2011 envisaged in the 10-year Transport Plan, change must accelerate. Examples of grant payments include assisting a distribution depot in London to receive aggregates and upgrade warehousing and sidings to move potash and steel, movements of household waste to landfill, and port terminal facilities for transporting aggregates. In 2003, grants were temporarily suspended. 2.3. Value networks In a free market, unless sustainable urban distribution strategies, including rail freight development, potentially deliver commercially optimal solutions, business will not adopt them. To formulate and evaluate transport plans, urban planners must appreciate how industrialists make decisions. A port seeking new markets, such as the commercial port at Plymouth, must offer clients either unique cost leadership advantages or market differentiation by providing a unique range and level of services. Cost leadership depends on the scale of operations, linkages, capacity utilisation, shared activities, integration, timing, standardisation, regulatory and locational factors. Decisions to move goods through a port, possibly by rail, depend on a complex chain of strategic decisions that drive management of the supply chain of relationships which move and process goods from their initial sources to final consumers. Routine decisions to switch modes, possibly to rail, retime transit or relocate value-adding processes, perhaps to Plymouth, are embedded within them. Managers select particular marketing channels and manage particular ‘‘value networks’’ by identifying and building ‘‘value chains’’. They redefine the network of relationships that enable a distribution channel to function and add value to goods passing through it, unravelling backwards

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from the final customer through retailers, hauliers, forwarders, manufacturers, agents, shippers and suppliers. To function efficiently the network must offer the potential to add value at each stage and sustainable urban distribution strategies including rail freight developments affect value chains. Decisions regarding how ports are marketed and whether to provide value-adding services depend on whether they meet broader supply chain requirements (Notteboom and Winkelmans, 2001). The relative costs, timing and reliability of movements by mode vary, as do particular port handling charges and opportunities to bag and store which add more value than elsewhere. Whether goods are moved through Plymouth depends on the range and cost of services and the added value offered. ‘‘Value-mapping’’ plots value added against time spent progressing through the supply chain. As transhipment points, ports provide opportunities to add value through offering efficient handling, processing, bagging, labelling, branding and outbound transport. Equally, ports may experience traffic congestion and delay, but these do not necessarily engender modal transfers (Van Schijndel and Dinwoodie, 2000). To enhance local and national prosperity, sustainable urban freight distribution strategies must enhance value networks they contribute to. 2.4. Regional rail freight considerations The regional feasibility of providing inter-modal rail terminals has been evaluated (Halcrow, 2002). An inter-modal terminal at TJP would incorporate a brownfield site capable of handling large trains with good road access but the rail system required junction reconfigurations and costly loading gauge upgrades to Exeter. Gradient restrictions imposed a 1000 tonne (1 kt) single headed running limit. Despite moderate potential demand, wagonload Enterprise traffic may be more appropriate catering for less than full trainload traffics. This study omitted the potential for short-sea shipping from Plymouth and new rail freight markets. Further, assumptions loading each countyÕs total demand on its county town as a single zone centroid underestimated rail freight potential in Devon, given the industrial bases in Plymouth, 70 km from Exeter and some Cornish traffic assumed to load at Truro may transfer to TJP. Onward road-rail transfer movements from TJP remove lorry miles from the interurban trunk network valued at SLM3 or SR4/SR1. Rates for lorry movements removed in London or the West Midlands would be SLM1 or SR2, SR3, SR4, SR6 or SR7. For successful local road-rail transfers, a rail access facility at Cattedown Wharves would save 5.1 km for each lorry movement avoided to TJP.

Drivers underpinning competitive strategies to attain cost advantages impact on local rail freight systems. Given high fixed costs, scale economies demand high frequency operations with high load factors for profitability. Plymouth, distant from many markets, needs traffics capable of sustaining regular full trainloads. Cost competitiveness requires operators willing to cooperate in sharing facilities to raise capacity utilisation. A local bridge imposes 1 kt restrictions, as do gradients to Exeter for single-headed running. Integration underpins value adding services including bagging, processing, branding, labelling and onward distribution to retail markets and can influence overall costs. Although standard UK loading gauge width is not restrictive, height limits exclude swap body loads to Plymouth. A 44 t gross vehicle weight unit hauls a 29 deadweight tonnes (dwt) payload and a road tanker 18 dwt. Where load consolidation at break of bulk transhipment centres may facilitate larger less frequent lorry movements into city centres and offer value adding services involving warehousing or packaging, developments of storage and processing facilities at TJP may yield cost advantages. Market differentiation strategies involve rail offering cost and environmental advantages for outbound logistics, fostering a positive corporate image. Additional space for adding value to commodities may enable processing using more efficient technology or new human resources. Successful rail freight (Glover, 1998) often requires volumes exceeding 100 kt per annum (pa), no intermediate marshalling, fixed origin and destination points for loading and unloading, and regular daily movements using full locomotive power. Although integration of small flows into larger economic loads is attractive (Trip and Bontekoning, 2002), failed UK shared-user initiatives including Speedlink, TransRail and Enterprise systems attempting to aggregate wagonload traffic into larger loads, demonstrate that rail freight suits full trainload traffic. Demand must be long term, sustained and regular.

3. Methodology Traditional freight mode choice models, often spatially mono-scale, offer planners little assistance in evaluating sustainable urban freight distribution strategies where goods-flows through ports simultaneously engage international, aggregate and disaggregate intercity and urban dimensions. Similarly, critical shipper behaviour or third and fourth party logistical issues are usually treated exogenously (Regan and Garrido, 2001). In this study, traditional models proved intractable because cost and contractual data were unavailable or misrepresented salient operational supply chain management is-

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sues. Rather, disaggregate spreadsheet cost simulations and semi-structured interviews were required to probe the perceptions and strategies of pertinent industrialists, including estimates of market potential by owners of local wharves, a fish processing company, a rail freight facility, and a rail operator. They assessed how far Plymouth might use natural advantages to develop new freight markets, major reasons for operating there, features of local operations offering cost and marketing advantages, alternative locations for operations, and major barriers to expansion. Simulated cost assumptions comparing estimated road and rail freight costs for 1999 mirror other sources (Halcrow, 2002; see Appendix A). For road movements assume lorry turnaround movements with no repositioning costs. Assume lorry fixed costs include labour, capital, fixed maintenance and running costs include variable maintenance and fuel. For rail freight, assume locomotives operate up to 300 days pa and 12 h per day, hauling up to 1 kdwt on 12 wagons. TAG is assumed to cover all track access costs. A 1 kt line haul of 390 km with an empty backhaul requires 1 h to load, 7 h laden running averaging 55 kph, 1 h to unload and 7 h to return (total 16 h), spread over 2 days. Annual flows of 150 kt are fed by 5850 lorries. Each lorry requires 1 h each to load and unload (lo–lo) adding £80 per feeder leg to £30 for administration and loading costs. Assume annual locomotive costs including fixed capital and maintenance, crew, and overheads and running cost including variable maintenance and fuel. Fixed annual wagon costs include fixed capital and maintenance with minimal running costs. Total annual train costs are £691 k regardless of load factor, with reduced numbers of feeder lorries at lower throughputs providing the only avoidable costs. Scale economies attain where annual rail freight costs of £1.334M equate £8.90p/t at 150 kt, rising to £10.14p at 75% load factor,

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£13.09p at 50% and £21.95p at 25%, undercutting road costs at throughputs exceeding 14 feeder lorries or 54.6 ktpa. Cost models reviewed all major new or potentially upgradeable local traffics (Fig. 1, R1–R13), typically comprising broad demand corridors with imprecise or multiple trip ends, necessarily represented here topologically, although true maps are available (Network Rail, 2004; RFG, 2004; Freightmaster Online, 2003). Current hauls involve movements (R1, R2) with spare capacity. R1, R2. Currently three 1 kt capacity trains weekly each haul 300 t of china clay to the Potteries (R1) and similarly paper mills (R2) without back loads. Rail freight costs may exceed road on R1 but undercut them on R2 (Table 2), excluding M6 motorway congestion costs or RFG considerations. At capacity outward, existing trains without backhauls would halve unit road costs, challenging rail freight to fill trains without compromising service levels.

Table 2 Unit costs on sample routes Route

R1 R1cd R2 R3 R3 R13 R13 R4c a b c d

Flowa

45 135 45 60 80 60 80 225

Trainloadsb

150 150 150 150 150 150 150 250

Cost £/tc

Rail % utilisation

Rail

Road

Locomotive time

19.33 9.26 31.93 15.16 12.41 6.33 4.95 7.51

17.08 17.08 33.11 13.70 13.70 13.70 13.70 9.81

77 77 80 60 60 99 99 87

ktpa. Per annum. Assuming one way hauls. If operating at capacity. Ditto route R4c.

Fig. 1. Rail freight routes.

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Table 3 Some annual road flows from and to Devon and Cornwall by commodity Route

Distance

Devona

Road cost £Mpab

Devon (Cornwall)

Flow

(o)ut (b)ack

(km)

(ktpa)

1 way

2 way

Commodity

(ktpa)

R5o Staffordshire R5b

384

158

10.9

6.1

R6o W. Midlands R6b

323

8.5

5.0

Sand gravel clay Misc transactions Building materials Misc transactions Misc transactions Foodstuffs Misc transactions Foodstuffs

88 (68) 21 (41) 31 38 (38) 191 41 185 47

R7o Scotland R7b R8o Kent

800

5.1

2.9

4.6

2.7

110 45 104

3.3

2.6

163

5.9

3.6

6.8

4.2

6.6

5.2

172

298

538

R8b R9o Suffolk R9b

538

R10o Essex

469

R10b

84 70 88

125

R11o London R11b

362

R12o Hants

243

R12b

281

222 177

257

397

Misc manufactures Other building Misc manufactures Sand gravel clay Agricultural product Misc manufactures Sand gravel clay Misc manufactures Misc transactions Misc manufactures Misc transactions Other building Foodstuffs Misc transactions Misc transactions Wood timber cork Crude materials Agricultural product Foodstuffs Misc transactions Sand gravel clay Agricultural product Wood timber cork Beverages Misc transactions Machinery transport Petrol, petroleum

23 29 31 24 36 32 38 29 20 35 25 121 38 38 37 33 25 56 50 31 139 43 35 31 27 22

(19) (25) (32)

(36) (27) (22)

(13) (18)

Source: Adapted from DTLR, CSRGT, personal communication, July 2002. a Total to and from Devon only. Individual commodity flows also show (Cornwall). b Estimated annual cost of road movements assuming no backloads (1 way), and backloads for all flows.

Given these results, indicative cost models first compared road costs of existing sub-optimal flows assuming one way hauls only, then optimal full reverse loads (out or back as appropriate), and finally some simulated transfers of road movements to rail using spare rail capacity (R13). Summaries of major inter-county road goods vehicle flows for 1998–2000 (Table 3; DTLR, 2001 and personal communication July 2002), prone to annual variation and sampling rates in the Continuing Survey of Road Goods Transport (CSRGT), were smoothed using a three-point moving average. Intracounty short distance road flows rarely suiting rail, were excluded. The economic viability of potential new rail traffics may demand RFG or combinations with other loads. Earlier initiatives have failed, where joint opera-

tions cause delays and compromise customer just in time requirements. Imprecise theoretical categorisations may include several traffics or seasonal flow regimes may deny optimal capacity management. Loads allocated particularly to Devon or London may include multiple drops.

4. Market potential Potential rail freight markets include known bulk traffics likely to use rail (traffics R3, R4) and some inter-county road movements. Most potential transfers involve long haul, large flows including Staffordshire and Scotland to fill existing trains; ports and other loca-

J. Dinwoodie / Journal of Transport Geography 14 (2006) 309–320

tions in Kent, Suffolk, Essex and Hampshire and urban areas including the West Midlands and Greater London. Corridors may combine R5/R6; R7; R8/R9 including Felixstowe and Harwich; R11, incorporating many individual destinations; R10 including Dover; and R12 including Southampton. Sand, gravel, clay, cement and building materials are commodities more likely to transfer. Potential full train load bulk traffics included cement and waste to landfill sites. R3. Cement movements as dedicated full train load, without backhauls or mixing of traffic, for 296 km 1way, discarding marketing advantages or RFG. Differential scale economies turn an estimated annual rail disadvantage of £88k at 60 kt throughput into savings over road of £104k at 80 kt. R4. Exhaustion of local landfill capacity will require transport of waste to landfill or incinerators. A viable rail service would combine similar movements from neighbouring counties using 15 flat wagons each carrying 3 TEU tenders. A Roche-Plymouth-Exeter service loading five waste wagons (300 t) at each stop would proceed to Avonmouth (260 km 1-way) for incineration or to Oxfordshire for landfill. At capacity, the speculative and indicative combined rail operation moving 75 ktpa from each site saves £517k, 23% of the individual road costs. Alternative configurations may involve Plymouth in isolation, less than full trainloads or combinations with other traffics. Where trainloads combine or add back loads without compromising customer service, potential exists for transfers to rail, out and back. R5/6. Dependant on precise locations and traffics involved, combined loads may generate traffic decongestion benefits for M5 and M6 motorways and West Midlands. R7. Existing outbound rail movements undercut road costs and would fall below £15/t with full outward loads. Local traffics are unlikely to transfer, but intermediate pickups may do. Long existing hauls and imprecise traffic categories reflect strong but unknown business reasons for choosing road currently. R8/9, R10/11. The economics of potential operation are similar to R5 promising fewer lorries on M25/ London/M20. Combined loads may serve two counties but detailed investigation of individual flows is needed. R12. Hauls are relatively short and precise destinations are unknown, favouring road. R13. This incorporates a back leg to R1 from Bristol to Port Talbot adding 112 km each way. Theoretically, if backhaul capacity from clay trains to Stoke (current unit cost £19.33/t) could carry 60 ktpa annually of cement from South Wales, the marginal cost reduces to £6.33/t or £4.95/t for an additional 20 kt. These compare with unit costs of £15.16/t and £12.41/t respectively

315

Table 4 Indicative annual road flows to/from Cattedown To

Cargo

Southampton/Felixstowe S.W. France/Dover N.W. France/Portsmouth E. Europe/Russia 18 UK retailersc Port flow in(ward)/out(ward) Out In Out In In In Out In In In In Out In a b c

Fish Fish Fish Fish Fish China clay Clay Scrap metal Timber Salt Fertiliser Grain Petrol/oil Bitumen Clay Animal feed Stone Fertiliser

Flow

Annual lorries

a

15 2 3 15 20

1200b 160 210 1200 1600

170 40 17 10 12 60 40 1250 27 70 35 40 30

13080 3080 1300 800 920 4800 3080 139,000 3000 5600 2700 3080 2400

ktpa. One way annual vehicle movements. UK retailer regional distribution centres are 200–800 km distant.

for 60 kt and 80 kt for dedicated trainload. In practice, rates could incorporate some capital cost recovery, enabling reduced and more competitive rail rates on R5. Operational delays, overrunning driversÕ hours limitations or requiring additional rolling stock requirements could jeopardise such savings. Although fluctuating with port flows, around 39k dry bulk and 142k road tanker urban movements annually service Cattedown port (Table 4). To maximise environmental benefits from reduced road movements requires strategies to promote alternative means of distributing petroleum and oil products and planning support for facilities to cater for traffics transported by more environmentally friendly modes. Projects that offer improved storage to facilitate trickle-feeding of bulk supplies would spread road movements more evenly over time.

5. Projects to facilitate rail freight interchange Six potential developments (T1–T6) were selected to maximise potential reduction in urban lorry movements, facilitate significant new business opportunities identified in interviews, and rail freight interchange at TJP. Project T1, to reduce dust and facilitate railhead lorry movements, would metal site access roads. Given a railhead set astride rail lines, project T2 proposes medium term, a bridge linking two sites, to remove 1k lorry movements daily, each 1.4 km long with two turning movements. Later, lorry parking in project T3 would

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facilitate an urban distribution centre and projects for onward rail transmission to Cornwall, involving Network Rail and private interests. Project T4 would facilitate developments to circumvent traffic lost due to insufficient port storage, T5 would cater for 75 ktpa of animal feed imports to farms in East Devon and T6 proposes an intermodal container terminal. Only T4 and T5 are not proposed in local plans. 5.1. Operational issues Due to inadequate storage facilities at Cattedown wharf, traffic is being refused but storage land is available at TJP. Project T4 proposes one mainline and one shunter each with wagon sets to provide merry-goround port-railhead operations to facilitate import and storage of 200 ktpa of known demand for stone. Three tracks are required at quayside, accessible for unloading from either berth. Separate rail loading and offloading points at TJP each offer operating capacities of 300 t/ h. Grants are assumed to cover estimated system costs of £1.17Mpa plus loading and unloading equipment. This system could offload 2.5 kt from one or more ships in 13 h, saving £2/t in demurrage for 80 ships annually. Two freight trains would each generate nine trainloads limited to 300 t by quay size and loading limits, necessitating 100 km of rail movement per shipload. This requires 80/250 days of rail system costs adding £1.87p/t handled and generates 16 kpa lorry movements at TJP. With road freight, each ship offloading at 1 kt daily generates 200 port lorry movements covering 81.6 kkmpa. Storage facilities at TJP will require 0.33 ha, costing £660k to construct, plus 0.2 ha for access and turning movements. Reduced port-railhead road running saves 1.87 kpa lorry hours, equating one driverÕs job assuming a 7-min one-way running time. Adding £22k running cost savings yields annual gains of £50k although new

Table 5 Evaluation of project T5 Annual cost (£k)

Option A

B

C

Road Rail Demurrage

541 0 225

285 564 150

523 140 75

staff cost £150k. Annually, rail freight saves 81.6t of fuel, and 81.6 kkm of urban emissions, accidents and road damage compared to road. Project T5 would facilitate Cattedown Wharf to handle 75 kt in 30 shiploads of animal feed annually destined for farms in East Devon, requiring 0.16 ha of warehousing for trickle feeding at TJP or in East Devon, offering three haulage options (Fig. 2) and associated costs (Table 5). Option A would truck wharf-farm generating lorry movements at Cattedown and incur £3/t for 3 days demurrage for each ship but is currently infeasible due to wharf-space limitations. Option B would haul 300 t trainloads to TJP for groupage into 900t hauls to storage in East Devon incurring 30/250 of annual rail costs on project T4 and 2 days demurrage for each ship, but no lorry movements in Plymouth. Per ship, option C generates nine trainloads of 300 t to storage at TJP, requiring warehousing costing £320k and incurring 30/250 of annual rail costs on project T4, but although ships unload in 13 h reducing demurrage costs, onward road hauls to farms generate lorry movements at TJP. Project T6 would cater for growing UK-Iberia traffic with onward rail links to Madrid through Bilbao or Santander, but PlymouthÕs existing ro–ro services to France and Spain serve dispersed rural hinterlands efficiently. Intermodal terminals may become feasible if future legislation requires bagging or containerisation of bulk powders, grain, or fertilisers. Similarly, a viable

Fig. 2. Project T5.

J. Dinwoodie / Journal of Transport Geography 14 (2006) 309–320 Table 6 Potential annual net savings in lorry movements Route/project

Trunk roads a

Lorries R3 Cement R4 Waste Plymouth R4All sites R10 Kent R9 Suffolk T4 T5a T5b T5c T6. Rail terminal P1. Petroleum a b c

To port b

Distance

6 6

1801 1177

17 6 6 ?c 6 0 6

3374 2846 3260 ? 720 210 690

Lorries

TJP Distance

Lorries 6 6

8 6 0 0

82 30 0 0

139

709

6 6 16 0 0 6 40 139

Thousand lorry trips per annum. Thousand kmpa. Imprecise trip ends.

urban distribution centre with onward intermodal container services would require retailers to route 20 kpa TEU through it, although multi-server wagonload traffic could replicate this function less extravagantly. Increased local lorry movements would remove many long distance road movements elsewhere. Most petroleum and oil supplied to Devon and Cornwall arrives in coastal tankers at Cattedown before piping to nearby oil terminal facilities and offloading onto road tankers for onward distribution. Project P1 would relocate the oil terminal and pipe petroleum 5 km to storage land at TJP railhead, releasing 0.8 ha of port land and removing 500 road tanker movements daily. 5.2. Investment priorities Rail traffics R1 and R2, operating at 30% load factors without backhauls, offer operators opportunities to capture more outbound road traffic and find backhauls. Provision of road-rail interchange and lorry parking at TJP involves metalling of access roads to reduce dust and mud, with floodlighting to mitigate light pollution and spillage. Because potential wagonload demand for servicing bulk road flows to ports in Essex, Suffolk, Kent and London based on aggregate statistics masks the precise origin, destination, companies and products involved, this necessitates further surveys of local businesses to determine the scope for such aggregation. Projects T1, T2 and T3 are prerequisites for servicing such traffic, or other developments at TJP, as are competitive and reliable rail operations. There is insufficient current local demand to justify investment in intermodal rail

317

freight facilities with costs of simple road-rail transfer facilities and loading gauge upgrades both exceeding £10M (Halcrow, 2002). All projects generate construction employment, but T3 requires 2 security staff, T5 requires 6 feed store and 8 servicing staff, T6 requires 20 staff, P1 loses 9 drivers, gains 5 security staff and releases land for employment intensive fish processing. Short-term developments at both TJP sites require upgraded access and bridging with merry-go-round rail-port links medium-term. North sites require shortterm storage and loading with feed stores medium-term whilst south sites require medium-term lorry parking, bagging, petroleum storage and loading facilities and long-term, any intermodal container facilities. Any land reclamation or oil storage relocation plans at Cattedown must consider rail freight options and implications for managing both port and railhead sites. 5.3. Environmental issues Traffics R5-R12 revealed scope for saving road movements through finding backhauls for rail freights but generate access hauls to TJP. Table 6 shows annual frequencies of 1-way trips saved on trunk roads and the port-TJP link, new trips generated at TJP and road distances saved. A new traffic, such as to Kent, potentially generates three trains weekly hauling 80 ktpa each way and 20 lorry movements daily at TJP, nationally saving 2 Mkmpa and 2 ktpa fuel, exceeded for other traffics. Project T5 generates new traffic (negative savings), but although rail freighting directly CattedownEast Devon generates no new lorry trips in Plymouth, processing or warehouse related employment is also exported. Intermodal terminals (project T6) offer environmental gains in several urban areas but generate 40 kpa access movements. Project T5 generates new movements from new business. Project P1 transfers the risk of spillage from road tankers to pipelines. Potentially, TJP could service 670 lorry movements daily including 40 from traffics R3 and R4, doubling if routes R9 and R10 add one train daily, project T6 adds 130 and P1 adds 460. Transfer of port related loading and storage functions to TJP potentially reduces lorry movements, saving 1 t of fuel per 1 kkm and consequent emissions, road damage, noise, vibration damage associated with low frequency engine noise, accidents and fears of pedestrians and cyclists towards using these modes. Track upgrade costs of linking Cattedown-TJP of £3M imply a need to generate appropriate grants. Road-rail transfers on long haul routes potentially remove traffic from Plymouth and urban areas en route.

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Table 7 Sensitive lorry mile valuations of potential rail transfers from Plymouth b

Staffordshire West Midlands Dover Essex London Hampshire a b c

SR1a

SR2

SR3

SR4

SR6

SR7

Total

c

19.7 9.7 33.5 34.3 16.7 0.0

53.1 17.9 17.9 36.6 12.4 0.0

42.4 42.4 50.9 102.8 42.4 149.5

13.8 16.6 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.0 0.0

139.0 96.6 118.5 185.8 90.6 150.1

10.0 10.0 16.2 12.1 12.1 0.6

Based on rates from SRA (2003) described in Section 2.2. By county for 2 way flows. £ kpa.

Table 7 shows conservative RFG estimates based on routing via motorways and principal roads, and nominal transfers to city centres which exclude urban transfers to unknown local trip ends expected in practise. These assumptions underestimate actual relief for conurbations (SR6, SR7) but still relieve congested motorways (SR2, SR3). Over 62% of current SLM valuations for road-rail transfers of china clay movements from Plymouth to Stoke on Trent with no backload are allocated to urban areas and congested motorways.

6. Conclusions This study found that scale economies defined the market potential for rail freight at Plymouth with dedicated long-distance hauls of china clay, and potentially cement, currently marginally viable. Capacity exists to treble rail output and cut unit costs and new services must attract reverse hauls without compromising customer service levels. This work identified substantial long distance inter-county road movements of bulk traffics but data sources lacked sufficient detail to identify them precisely enough to define the commercial scope for integration to form viable train-hauls. Traditional transportation modelling procedures proved inoperable in this case, because the often speculative cost and contractual information required to model complex supply chains was unavailable. Rather, interviews with industrialists and cost simulations provided the most reliable data with which to evaluate potential developments. A series of potential sustainable local development options to promote rail freight were evaluated and prioritised in terms of their impact on land-use, employment and the environment. UK rail freight subsidy criteria require updating. Current support for developments at terminals that facilitate road-rail transfers offering environmental benefits from reduced bulk road movements in urban areas at trip ends and transit cities is based on inland transport mode choice. It may not pinpoint industrialists who manage bulk flows within integrated logistical systems seeking optimal pan-European value chains. To in-

duce more substantial urban freight transfers demands broader subsidy criteria, possibly integrated within a pan-European framework and mirroring integrated industrial decisions embracing selecting ports, locations for product processing, and transport modes for inbound and onward movements. Equally, where the potential benefits of full trainloads depend on a logistics integratorÕs ability to aggregate partial loads, subsidy for infrastructural development to assist consolidation at intermodal urban distribution centres may be more effective in maximising urban decongestion benefits than subsidy for modal transfers. This work highlighted heavy bulk movements, mainly port-based, but requires more systematic surveys to reveal aggregate overviews of traffics. To determine the operating potential for rail freight to combine long distance bulk traffics, in this case and elsewhere, requires detailed surveys of organisations locally to define the precise origin, destination, nature and timing of potential flows. Research would identify specific local corporate freight requirements that may justify an urban distribution centre with potential to reduce local road movements. Work to estimate savings in ship demurrage costs and lorry movement entails detailed configurations of enhanced loading, storage and processing facilities at the railhead. Investigating intraorganisational logistical decision making affecting local branches could reveal scope for adopting more sustainable strategies. Future work would identify the type and frequency of intra-city freight movements and how far transport systems could develop potential new markets and transfers to alternative modes. Surveys must assess the origin and destination of sample movements, modes used and costs, scope for considering alternative modes, industrialistsÕ perspectives of prospects for serving new markets and the potential of rail to serve them.

Acknowledgements Thanks are due to Plymouth City Council for funding this work.

J. Dinwoodie / Journal of Transport Geography 14 (2006) 309–320

319

Appendix A. Spreadsheet output for the example case Example case Mode

1 way distance Road Tonnage pa Dwt load/lorry (t) Lorries pa Days pa Lorries/day

Time

Running @ 65 kph Load Unload Total 1 way Assume empty backhaul Total round time

Cost

Fixed/hour Fixed/trip Running/km 2 way running Total per round trip Total pa Total/dwt 1 way rail at capacity Tonnage pa Trains/week Trains pa Mobilisation cost/train Mobilisation cost pa Load/train Equivalent lorries/train Train km pa (includes back haul) Running costs pa @£1/train km Locomotive utilisation

Time

Running time @55 kph

Cost

Lo–lo, administration/truck Road feeder/truck Lo–lo, administration, feeder pa 1 locomotive 1 wagon, fixed pa 12 wagons, fixed pa Train pa Total pa Total/dwt Rail saving over road pa

Unit 390.00

km

150000.00 26.00 5769.00 250.00 23.00

t t

6.00 2.00 2.00 10.00 6.00 16.00

h h h h h h

15.00 240.00 0.27 210.60 450.60 2599511.40 17.33

£ £ £ £ £ £ £

150000.00 3.00 150.00 300.00 45000.00 1000.00 39.00 117000.00 117000.00 0.78

t t £ £ t km £ h

30.00 80.00 643500.00 442000.00 7250.00 87000.00 691000.00 1334500.00 8.90 1265011.40

£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £

Browne, M., Allen, J., 1999. The impact of sustainability policies on urban freight transport and logistics systems. In: Meersman, H., Van de Voorde, E., Winkelmans, W. (Eds.), Transport Modes and Systems, 8th World Conference on Transport Research, Vol. 1. Elsevier, Oxford: Pergamon, pp. 505–518.

26 t/truck Potential locomotive use 150kkmpa 22% of locomotive time unused

7.09

References

Comments

50 km per leg Truck equivalents of trainloads pa

100 t wagons Potential wagon use 111kkmpa

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