Freight Needs Flexibility

摘要

'Our problem in the UK, unfortunately, is that the passenger tends to be king', First GB Railfreight Chief Executive John Smith told the lMechE's seven-day railway seminar in Brussels on November 28 (p9).rn'The seven-day railway is passenger-driven', he declared. 'What on earth does it mean to me?' The concept seeks to transfer infrastructure maintenance work from Sundays to week nights, but he explained that First GBRf already hauls freight largely at night because 'there are so many passenger trains [that] 1 don't really have the ability to run during the daytime'.rnAt weekends, Smith pointed out that many of his customers including electricity generators 'actually don't want their trains running on Sundays'. In any case 'our crews have to work six days, and 1 really can't make them work seven days'.