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Mon 21 Jul 2025
Manufacturers have urged the government to revive the northern section of HS2 in order to allow an expansion of rail freight in the UK.
Rail freight usage will need to rise at least 75% by 2050 in order to remove lorries from UK roads and decarbonise the transport sector.
However, a report from Make UK and Barclays Corporate Bank warns that domestic rail capacity is simply too low to accommodate the amount of additional rail freight needed. It calls for the sections linking Birmingham with both Leeds and Manchester to be revived as a way to shift goods around the manufacturing hubs in the North of Great Britain, as well as helping to meet demand for their products in the South.
It advocates for a series of logistics hubs along the HS2 corridor that would link major ports such as Felixstowe with the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
One train is able to replace up to 129 heavy goods vehicles – a tonne of freight moved by rail produces about a quarter of the carbon emissions it does by road. But despite its environmental benefits, it is estimated that rail freight only accounts for around 10% of surface freight across the UK today.
In the report, just under half of manufacturers identified cost as the primary barrier to accessing freight. Across a decade, the cost (per tonne) in miles increased by over 10% for rail freight providers compared to just 3% for road freight. This was as a result of several factors, including the cost that Network Rail charges to access its tracks, which have increased by 26%, reflecting inflation as well as maintenance costs. Meanwhile, road charges and levies such as tolls, vehicle taxes and fuel duty have fallen by 41% in real terms.
It also suggested that HS2 passenger services on the new tracks would free key freight routes on existing lines, which would increase availability for goods traffic.
At the moment, HS2 Phase 2 (north of Birmingham) remains officially cancelled and the government’s recent reset focuses solely on the Phase 1 (London to Birmingham) route. Northern extensions have yet to be reinstated.
“By embedding rail into a broader long-term strategy for multi-modal transport efficiency, the UK can unlock substantial economic value, improve road safety and make tangible progress toward its decarbonisation goals,” the report concluded. “This is not only a chance to invest in infrastructure now, [but] an opportunity to reshape our economy for the next century.”
Last year, Royal Mail announced it would stop using its dedicated fleet of mail- and parcel-carrying trains due to the cost of running electric trains and because its purpose-built train fleet would have required expensive investment to continue operations.
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