RAIL FREIGHT

RAIL FREIGHT

What is rail freight?

This is the use of railways by trains for the transport of goods.
There are two types of rail freight:
 low speed for the transport of heavy goods high speed, for the transport of perishable foods and fresh products, as well as certain regional productions.
 
But we have a big problem in France, rail freight does not work. It only represents 9% of goods transport, while road freight represents 90%. For what ? Because a lot of money has been put into passenger transport and especially on TGVs at the expense of freight.
Another reason concerns transport by trucks. Over the past thirty years, great progress has been made for trucks, and rail infrastructure has not kept up.

In 2020, measures were taken by the government of Jean CASTEX to improve rail freight, and since 2021 annual aid has been granted. In October 2021, a recovery plan was announced in order to improve all developments on the rail network, with the aim, initially, of doubling rail freight to reach 18%. Despite everything, France will still lag significantly behind other European countries, such as Germany with 18% of rail freight, Switzerland with 35% or Austria with 32%.
Since 1974 the share of rail freight has continued to decline. At the time it was 5 times larger and represented half the European average.

 
The advantage of rail freight over road freight remains considerable. It is capable of transporting large quantities of goods over long distances and thus avoiding blockages in ports, weather-related problems, smooth travel, traffic jams, etc. … Another advantage of rail freight is that it produces 9 times less CO² than road transport.
This is how large corridors, called corridors, are created across Europe, going for example from Hungary to the south of Spain, passing through the south-east of France, Italy, the Slovenia and Croatia, and another corridor from Strasbourg to Eastern Europe.
The Atlantic corridor also remains very important since it starts from Germany via Paris and goes down to Portugal through the west of France crossing Spain.

The capacity of freight wagons ranges from 80 to 100 m3 and is capable of transporting steel, grains, liquids, fuels, etc. Each wagon can thus transport 50 to 60 tonnes of goods and up to 130 tonnes since an axle can support 44 tonnes, which means that the total load of a train can be around 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes. The length of these freight trains is 850 meters maximum, they run on the Bettembourg line in Luxembourg to Perpignan and Le Havre/Marseille.
The speed of these trains is 100 km/h, but certain special trains travel at 160 km/h which allows them to fit into passenger traffic.

Currently 5,000 people are employed in the French railway sector. This sector was profitable in 2021 and 2022, while it was in deficit for a long time.
Unions and government often have difficult discussions, but the goal is to develop activity in the sector and safeguard employment.