Great British Railways (GBR) have received a target from the government to increase rail freight by at least 40% by 2040.
The Department for Transport announced the target on Tuesday 8 September, the same day that the Railways Bill establishing GBR entered its committee stage in the House of Lords.
Rail freight currently carries goods worth around £34 billion annually. Achieving the 2040 target could add around £15 billion to the value of goods transported by rail each year.
The programme has also been linked to road congestion and emissions, with estimations that achieving the new target could avoid up to one million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually compared with moving the same freight by road.
The government expects growth to come from both traditional bulk flows and intermodal and consumer goods traffic, with Network Rail estimating that meeting the target could increase the amount of construction materials transported by rail by 45%, while volumes of goods including cars, wine, white goods and medicines could rise by around 66%.
According to figures cited by the Department for Transport, a single freight train can transport enough material to build around 30 homes.
Freight will also have representation at GBR board level, with the government saying that this should bring the requirements of freight operators and their customers into infrastructure and capacity decisions. One of the responsibilities for GBR will be to work with freight operators on finding additional network capacity. This will be especially important if the government expects substantial growth on a mixed-traffic railway where freight competes for paths with passenger services.
Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said that GBR has a clear mission to help grow the economy by moving more of the goods British businesses rely on, and Network Rail Chief Executive, Jeremy Westlake, highlighted the role of freight in supplying supermarkets and construction projects.
The 40% increase by 2040 is the first defined milestone towards the government's longer-term target of at least 75% rail freight growth by 2050.