Freight Operators (FOCs)
Freight Operating Companies, abbreviated to FOCs, run all the main line freight services in the UK. FOCs are not split geographically, unlike their TOC counterparts, due to the nature of the freight business. There are currently far fewer freight operators and each have specialised in their own areas reducing competition between themselves.
There are four main freight operating companies, the largest of which is DB Schenker (formerly the English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS)). There are also several smaller independent operators including Mendip Rail. Types of freight carried include intermodal — in essence containerised freight — and coal, metals, oil, and construction material. Freight services have been in steady decline since the 1950s, although the Department for Transport's Transport Ten Year Plan calls for an 80% increase in rail freight measured from a 2000–1 base.
Statistics on freight are specified in terms of the weight of freight lifted, and the net tonne kilometre, being freight weight multiplied by distance carried. 87 million tonnes of freight was lifted in the 2002–3 period, against 138 million tonnes in 1986–7, a decrease of 37%. 18.7 billion net tonne kilometres (11.4 billion net ton miles) of freight movement were recorded in 2002–3, against 16.6 billion (10.1 billion) in 1986–7, an increase of 13%.
A symbolic loss to the rail freight industry in Great Britain was the custom of the Royal Mail, which from 2004 discontinued use of its 49-train fleet, and switching to road haulage after a near 170-year-preference for trains. Mail trains had long been part of the tradition of the railways in Great Britain, not least because of the film Night Mail, for which W. H. Auden wrote the poem of the same name. Although Royal Mail suspended the Mail train in January 2004, this decision was reversed in December of the same year and Class 325s are now used on some routes including between London, Warrington and Scotland.
1995+ the amount of freight carried on the railways has increased sharply. The railways have become more reliable, and economical. Big Road hauliers such as Eddie Stobart LTD and WH Malcom move goods by rail Hauling supplies from ASDA and TESCO. Morrison also use rail freight, as do M&S and many more retailers. aby the year 2015 rail-borne intermodal traffic is scheduled to double, and by 2030 the whole of rail freight is expected to double.
Freight trains in the UK are very fuel efficient compared to the road equivalent, there for the emissions released into the atmosphere is reduced, in fact, the average freight train is 70% more efficient than road transport. The heaviest freight train in the UK, is equivalent to 160 lorry loads.
UK freight trains are going to get heavier and bigger over the next few years to increase efficiency even more and to attract more freight onto rail.