Freight 'not valued', says Smith

摘要

Addressing the Railway Study Association on April 4, GB Railfreight Managing Director John Smith said 'rail freight is something that is not valued I feel in the UK'. He felt that 'no-one likes us; we get in the way. Politicians are already blaming freight trains in the Doncaster area for delays on the East Coast Main Line. A major part of GBRfs business is supplying Drax, Europe's largest coal-fired power station, with the fuel that 'generates 12% of all the electricity in the country'. Yet 'there are proposals at the moment to increase track access charges by 1 000%. Well, thank you very much Network Rail, that's brilliant!' In fact, track access charges are set by ORR, but Smith fears 'the regulator can take this up and run with it because it believes it should be taxing the generators making a fortune out of generating with coal'.