Low Carbon Logistics

Away from the “blah, blah, blah” of the main COP26 events in Glasgow, the Low Carbon Logistics conference at Mossend (held on the 8^th, 9^th and 10^th of November) showcased some of the solutions the transport industry is coming up with to reduce its carbon footprint.

Exhibitors in attendance included Network Rail, DB Cargo UK, Nuclear Transport Solutions (owner of DRS), Peel Ports, and of course the hosts for the event, P&D Stirling, whose Mossend International Railfreight Park (MIRP) provided the venue for the conference. MIRP is a controversial development locally, with objections raised over building on “green belt” land, but the construction of MIRP will allow more freight on rail and fewer trucks using local roads through Bellshill.

The three day conference had a different theme each day, with speakers discussing the relevant topics. Monday’s theme was “let’s talk about rail freight”. Speakers included Morwen Mands, Head of Sustainability at Highland Spring Group, who are building a railfreight siding adjacent to the group’s main bottling plant in Blackford, and Chris Swan, Head of Rail at Tarmac, who own the rail-served cement terminal at Uddingston.  Tuesday’s theme was “Driving rail Innovations” with an emphasis on decarbonising rail. I attended on Wednesday, which had the theme of "skills and opportunity" with speakers from the National Skills Academy for Rail, Glasgow Caledonian University and SWGR talking about how the amount of electrification going on (plus maintenance, plus building HS2 and reopenings) requires a lot of manpower and skills and how best to retain these skills as older engineers retire and (post Brexit) European workers move back to Europe. The main message here was the need to train up a new generation of engineers, particularly civil and electrical engineers, and technicians.

Before all the speeches started, there was a chance to speak to the exhibitors, which resulted in several interesting conversations. One exhibitor from Network Rail mentioned somebody at the Q&A the day before (possibly one of our members) asking about electrifying a certain line in Glasgow and the answer was that it would simply cost too much. The main concerns were over alterations to listed buildings and closing the line for 18 months. In a so-called "climate emergency" how much are we as a country willing to spend cutting CO2 emissions? It was reported recently that Freightliner were taking their electric locos off the rails and replacing them with diesels because the price of electricity had shot up. This was due to the rising price of gas, upon which (apparently) much of our generating capacity is still dependant. Clearly decarbonising the grid must go hand-in-hand with electrifying transport otherwise putting up wires is simply moving the emissions around. The same of course goes for battery and hydrogen power. Yes, the vehicles themselves don't pollute, but the production of hydrogen is very energy intensive, and batteries contain rare earth elements that come from iffy mines in the Congo. I had another interesting conversation with a man from Peel Ports about the developments at Hunterston, as well as getting the railway to Greenock Ocean Terminal reopened, and the Mossend-Liverpool container train. Obviously Peel Ports are keen on using rail and they need to be encouraged in this endeavour.

Each day culminated in a locomotive naming ceremony, with GBRF naming 92020 “Billy Stirling” on Monday, DB Cargo naming 90039 “The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport” on Tuesday and DRS naming 68006 “Pride of the North”  on Wednesday.

Truck driver shortage is an opportunity for modal shift.

 Recent days have seen reports of panic buying of fuel as the media have suggested a fuel shortage due to a lack of truck drivers to deliver to petrol stations. This brings up two issues:

1. A shortage of truck drivers.

2. Car dependency.

Let's deal with the driver shortage first. Brexit has resulted in many European drivers quitting the UK, and the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a backlog of trainee drivers needing to be tested. This has created the perfect storm of a driver shortage, which will affect deliveries of all manner of products. Fuel tanker drivers need additional hazardous goods training, which exacerbates the problem for that particular trade.

To cut down on the number of lorries on the road (all of which need drivers), industry must look to getting more freight on the railways. Of course trucks are still needed to deliver to petrol stations, supermarkets, and high street shops. However longer distance trunking routes between suppliers and regional distribution centres should be moved onto the railways, freeing up truck drivers for local deliveries as well as reducing pollution. Bulk movements of commodities such as timber, cement, grain, etc. are obvious targets for modal shift. With the rise of online shopping and home deliveries, parcels traffic should return to the railways as well. 

Panic buying is a symptom of wider cultural issues, but car dependency is one problem that can be easily solved. Cars themselves are a very inefficient way of moving people around, particularly for commuting and short journeys. Investment in active travel and public transport should provide the public with car-free alternatives that pollute less and aren't dependent on a finite and fickle resource for fuel. Electric cars will also help in this area, but should not be relied upon as a solution to problems such as pollution and congestion. since an electric car takes up the same amount of space on the road as an internal combustion-engined car, and also consumes the same amount of material to build. Petrol shortages have happened before, yet every time queues form outside petrol stations, nobody stops to ask "can we get by without the car?" It's time to stop relying on the car and look for alternatives.