Media centre

Thursday 2 Apr 2020

One million tonnes of critical supplies transported weekly along the West Coast main line during Covid-19 crisis

Region & Route:

North West & Central

• Scotland’s supermarkets rely on goods by rail from Daventry 
• Royal Mail post goes by rail between London and Glasgow
• Imported goods into West Midlands from deep-sea ports 

Every 24 hours throughout the coronavirus crisis, 188,000 tonnes of critical supplies - including food, fuel and medicine - are moved by rail between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.

That’s 1.13 million tonnes* every week - most of it transported along the West Coast main line (WCML), the busiest mixed-use (passenger and freight) railway in Europe, and its key spurs.

This includes 18,500 tonnes of bananas, pasta, loo roll and other essentials that pass over the England-Scottish border every day. This allows goods can be stocked on supermarket shelves and in high street shops the next day.

As Scotland does not have any deep-sea ports, it relies on freight services through NW&C to keep its shops stocked.

Ordinarily, rail freight goes largely unnoticed. Much of it travels by night, rumbling in darkness to and from every part of the country to keep shops, pharmacies and hospital stocked.

But with Britain in crisis, locked down to halt the spread of coronavirus, the importance of freight comes into sharp focus - and nowhere more so than on Network Rail’s North West & Central (NW&C) region, known also as the ‘Backbone of Britain.

Despite passenger services reducing in recent weeks, customer demand for critical supplies has remained consistent, and the freight industry is standing together with Network Rail to keep key supply lines open and trains moving.

As the coronavirus pandemic goes on, Network Rail’s priority is to keep vital supply routes, notably the West Coast main line and its key arteries, open. Critical to this are frontline specialists, such as signallers, without whom the railway cannot operate. 

James Dean, Network Rail route director for West Coast Mainline South, said: “I’m incredibly proud of our frontline ‘key workers’ – including signallers, control room staff and track engineers. 

“While the country pulls together to reduce the spread of Coronavirus, they’re working tirelessly to keep the railway running so that critical supplies like food, fuel and medical supplies can continue moving across the country. It also means essential workers like carers, nurses and doctors can get to and from work.

“Running a safe and reliable railway is more important now than ever before. I’m proud of my team and the part they’re playing in keeping the country moving.”

Freight plays a crucial role in keeping the country’s lights on. Trains carry biomass from Liverpool docks to the Drax power station in Yorkshire, as well as petroleum from Scotland to Dalston in Cumbria and from Humberside to Kingsbury Oil Terminal in the West Midlands.

Freight companies are looking at how they can reconfigure the trains in order to get more containers per train to meet a forecast rise in demand over coming weeks and months.

Maggie Simpson, director general of Rail Freight Group, said: “The rail freight industry is working flat out to make sure essential supplies are available on supermarket shelves, that the lights stay on and that the warehouses have all the goods we need for online shopping.

“It is a real testament to all our staff, and those at Network Rail and across the railway for keeping up with changing demand and helping the whole of the UK in these difficult times.”

To prioritise freight and key worker journeys, a reduced timetable is currently running on the railway network.

Government guidelines are advising the public to only travel if absolutely essential.

People making essential journeys should visit www.nationalrail.co.uk to check the revised train times.