Northamptonshire’s continued success as a business and logistics centre is dependent upon the ability to move goods quickly through the county’s transport networks.Northamptonshire is home to many logistics businesses and from here they take advantage of the central location to deliver everything, from Formula 1 cars to Weetabix, efficiently to a large proportion of the UK’s population.

As the logistics sector continues to develop, congestion has become a key issue for the road freight industry. It is estimated that congestion costs UK businesses £17billion annually, and with a further 40% growth in road traffic expected by 2020 without a matched increase planned in road capacity, there is no doubt that the problem needs to be addressed.

The rising cost of fuel is another issue high on the agenda for the logistics industry, with another proposed fuel duty rise on the horizon for January 2012. Just this week a group of MPs who were supporting the FairFuelUK campaign called on the government to abandon this proposed rise to help both general motorists and road transport businesses.

One option to relieve the burden on the road network and to beat rising fuel costs is the potential to move some freight off the roads and put it onto rail instead. According to Network Rail, on average a gallon of fuel will move a tonne of goods 88 miles by road, compared with 246 miles on rail, and each freight train takes about 60 HGVs off the road.

Not surprisingly, companies are responding to these drivers, and rail freight traffic has grown 60% since the mid-1990s, with Network Rail predicting a further 30% growth over the next decade and up to 140% growth in the next 30 years. Many major high street names use rail services for some of their deliveries, and railways now carry 12% of all UK goods traffic.

There are a number of rail freight terminals in the county and more are planned to push this trend forward. These include DIRFT in Daventry (with further expansion planned), Corby EuroHub and CIRFT in Corby.  These terminals are helping to bring jobs and enterprise to the county, including Tesco, with a distribution centre at DIRFT.

Rail freight, however, must work together with road freight in order to be truly successful.  Since rail does not go directly to our houses, interconnectivity with road haulage is key to take freight from rail hubs to its final destination.

Rail freight is a centrally important to the British economy – contributing £870million to the country annually, and supporting economic output of £5.9 billion. Northamptonshire is supporting the development of new rail freight facilities to drive efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions and there is great potential in the county for more development, alongside a thriving road freight industry.