RFG's Rail Freight Awards 2008/Annual Policy Meeting/ Annual General Meeting

16-17 September 2008

Rail Freight Awards

The winners with Guest of Honour Pete Waterman, sponsors First GBRf's John Smith and RFG's Phillippa O'Shea and Alan Bennett

At its Awards Dinner and its Annual Policy Meeting today (Wednesday 17 September 2008), RFG announced the winners of its first ever awards event.   The independent Judging Panel made the following awards:

Victa Railfreight won the Excellence in service delivery award for ‘excellence in meeting the varying needs of its customers at a variety of locations.  The ability to be flexible and highly responsive to customer needs, and a determination always to ensure that those needs were fully served was demonstrated comprehensively.’  Bircham Dyson Bell were runners-up.

W H Davis and SCT Europe won the Technical Development award with ‘a new design of vehicle to address the limitations of the network wide W8 loading gauge for the movement of increasingly popular 45ft long and 9ft 6in high shipping containers. The judges considered that the SuperLow45 wagon will significantly improve market penetration where gauge enhancement is yet to be delivered.’   Lloyds Register Rail were runners-up.

The Malcolm Group won the Marketing Initiative award ‘demonstrated a successful branding initiative in support of its marketing and sales strategy, focussing on the logistics and consumer goods markets, and this branding was complementary to new services for these challenging markets.’

The winners of the Environmental Innovation award were a cross-industry team including Network Rail, EWS, DRS, First GBRf and Freightliner with the assistance of the DfT Rail Team which focused ‘on the environmental benefit of enhancing the capacity of the railway infrastructure to increase its volume and market share. The pathing and gauge limitations of many parts of the railway infrastructure has been tackled by the team in identifying the priorities and options for increasing capacity and making the case for the most beneficial enhancements. We applaud the team for its work in developing the Strategic Freight Network proposals.’   The runners up were a joint entry from W H Davis and SCT Europe.

The Business of the Year award is made on the basis of the entries received for the other awards. The winner was the Malcolm Group and the runner up the joint entry of W H Davis/SCT Europe.

Commenting on these awards, RFG Chairman Tony Berkeley said ‘the high quality and number of entries received demonstrated the success, the customer service and innovation of many parts of the industry.   We congratulate all the winners and their staff, and hope that these awards will encourages their businesses and projects to develop in the coming year.

‘We thank the independent judges panel for their thorough evaluation of the entries and for putting so much time towards this work and to FGBRf for their sponsorship of the event.’

The Independent Judging Panel for the RFG awards comprised:

Jeremy Candfield, Railway Industry Association

John Ellis, FGBRf

Richard Hope, Railway Gazette

Stephen Joseph, Campaign for Better Transport

Further photo's of the evening are available form Phillippa O'Shea.

Annual General Meeting/Policy Meeting, Oxford 17 September 2008

RFG’s 2008 Annual General Meeting and Policy Meeting took place in Oxford on September 17th. The event was preceded by RFG’s first Rail Freight Awards Dinner (see above), which was sponsored by First GBRf. At the dinner, Pete Waterman entertained an attentive audience with a frank and amusing account of his early days in the rail industry, his continuing interest in modern and heritage railways and his stellar career in the rock music business. We have received many compliments about the Awards Dinner and we are pleased to confirm that we intend it to become an annual event.

The AGM opened with a short welcome by Chairman Tony Berkeley, who summarised RFG’s achievements and activities over the past year. Bob Gillett and Ken Bell retired from the Board and were thanked by Tony for their past contributions. Chris Geldard was elected to the RFG Board for the first time, and Graham Smith, Bob Ingram and Tony Berkeley were re-elected.

The first presentation at the Policy Meeting was given by Duncan Buchanan of the Department for Transport (DfT), who spoke on “Towards a Sustainable Transport System: Update on Mode-shift grants and SLM values”. Duncan described progress on DfT’s Freight Grants review, clarified the increase in multimodal grant funding announced earlier  in September, and explained that there will be a consultation at year-end on Mode-shift Externalities Values (MEVs), which are to replace SLM values in calculating multimodal grant awards. Duncan emphasised that DfT would like as much feedback from stakeholders as possible on MEVs. The presentation was followed by a discussion session which focused on the new level of grant funding and on the diesel fuel prices used to calculate MEVs. Duncan explained that the funding settlement would provide additional headroom for multimodal grant applications, which had been reallocated from DfT’s overall budget. In terms of MEVs, Duncan said that in order to ensure consistency between funding bids, DfT had calculated MEVs on the same assumptions about future oil prices as used in other Government departments: however, he recognised that there is now a question regarding the most appropriate vales to use.

James Drummond from Invensys Technology Innovation gave a presentation on “Reducing Cost and Increasing Capacity”, which focused on the evolution of signalling techniques, and the way in which signalling and train control systems have progressed from simply ensuring safety, to increasing the efficiency of train operations and infrastructure management and optimising the capacity and capability of complex rail networks. Attendees asked James a number of questions about ERTMS, TAF-TSIs, and emphasised the need to ensure that train control systems focused on specific business requirements as well as delivering macroeconomic benefits or meeting national and international policy objectives.

Geoff Clarke, Technical Manager, Faber Maunsell-AECOM gave a presentation on DfT’s ‘’Freight Best Practice Programme: Encouraging Multimodal Solutions”. Geoff talked attendees through this new publication, designed to encourage freight users to switch to sustainable, multimodal transport systems. The document is issued under the aegis of DfT’s “Freight Best Practice” programme and has been developed in co-operation with a range of freight industry stakeholders including RFG. Geoff also outlined the goals of the next stage of the “Freight Best Practice” programme, which will focus on practical actions to encourage the increased use of sustainable modes such as rail freight. Geoff’s presentation led to a number of questions about issues such as emissions levels and fuel costs. One questioner advocated that RFG should take on a ‘public education’ role to promote good practices in rail freight.

Dr Michael Smith, CEO of Energyfiles, gave a keynote presentation on “Future Trends in the price and availability of oil”. Michael provided a clear and compelling analysis of the geophysical, technical, economic and political influences on the oil market, and the underlying drivers of the increase in oil prices above the UK Government’s central forecasts. He clarified the terminology used in the oil industry to categorise discoveries of oil deposits and to estimate reserves and described the constraints on peak production. Michael concluded by providing some longer-term forecasts of global and national production and consumption of oil, and described some of the economic and political implications of the likely future imbalance between demand and supply. Michael’s presentation stimulated a range of questions on the implications of higher oil prices for international supply-chains and for the availability and price of alternative energy sources.   

Following Michael’s presentation, attendees participated in a breakout session to discuss the effect of higher oil prices on the demand for rail freight, the rail network improvements needed to accommodate greater freight traffic growth and the efficiency challenges facing rail freight service providers. Chris Geldard and Mike Garratt acted as rapporteurs for the breakout groups, and the insights gained will be used to inform RFG policy responses and Group activities over the coming year.

Mike Garratt, Managing Director, MDS Transmodal then talked on the subject of “Freight Forecasting – its role and purpose”. Mike emphasised  the importance of developing robust and independent forecasts of rail freight demand, using a methodology enabling sensitivity tests to be undertaken objectively, e.g. to reflect significant changes in fuel prices and land-use planning. Mike provided an example of sensitivity testing, showing that if future oil prices continue to be higher than the UK Government’s central estimates, there is likely to be a much greater increase in rail freight traffic and rail market share, than is foreshadowed in the recent RFG/FTA forecasts of rail freight demand to 2030.

Sanjay Jamuar from Network Rail followed Mike Garratt’s presentation by briefing attendees about “Network Rail’s New Lines Study”, which is currently in its inception stage. Sanjay explained that the study is primarily intended to identify the increased capacity and improved capability needed to adapt the national rail network to accommodate the forecast increase in passenger demand generated by structural changes in demography and economic development -including the identification of possible new lines and links. However, there are likely to be significant benefits for rail freight users if new lines are constructed -either on the new links themselves or by releasing capacity on, and improving the capability of, the current rail network.

Andrew Relf of Network Rail then provided a complementary overview of the “Strategic Freight Network” and its place within Governmental Rail policy, Network Rail’s updated Strategic Business Plan and ORR’s Draft PR08 determination. Andrew described the overall improvements to be delivered on core freight routes in Great Britain and the rationale for selecting and prioritising individual schemes. During the following question and answer session, Alan Bennett pointed out that SFN funding is not currently allocated to projects within Scotland and Wales (other than Cardiff.) RFG would seek to ensure that there was alignment between Network Rail's aspiration for the delivery of the Strategic Freight Network on a national basis, and the network enhancement plans of the Devolved Governments.

 TaSTS and the Mode-Shift Grants Review - Duncan Buchanan, Head, Sustainable Distribution Policy, Freight and Logistics Division, Department for Transport

Freight best practice programme - Encouraging multi-modal solutions - Geoff Clarke, Faber Maunsell

Technical Innovations - Encouraging Multi-modal solutions - James Drummond, Invensys

Future trends in the availability and price of oil - Dr Michael R Smith, Chief Executive, Energy Files

Freight Forecasting - its role and purpose - Mike Garratt, MDS transmodal

New lines - Strategic Freight Network presentation - Sanjay Jamuar and Andrew Relf, Network Rail