Does anyone know the track access charge for an intermediate service running from the south coast to Scotland roughly?
Could a market ever be created for a swapbody service originating on the south coast with stops around London, the Midlands, Yorkshire, the North east or west and finally Scotland. With stops of around an hour at each. I'd imagine if you can get big players such as royal mail, DHL, stobart, wh malcolm and the supermarkets to buy into swapbodies over standard curtainsided hgv trailers you could make a viable service and a step change if it were price competitive, not to member they love to boast of reduced co2 emissions.
The problem is there are very few swap body / container terminals, particularly around the south coast. These kind of facilities can often cost £ millions to build from scratch, so although the big players might be interested, the financial outlay required would soon outweigh the benefits.
A lot of freight such as oil, industrial rolls of paper, stone and "Binliner" workings may cover long distances, but they are not necessarily very time sensitive and simply don't need to run at speeds in excess of 75MPH.
There is a possibility of shifting loads when large items with a high centre of gravity are being carried at high speed and extra restraints, retaining straps, etc could be required potentially incurring extra time and staff.
I've often thought the huge TNT parcel depot at Atherstone would make an excellent rail served terminal, but it depends if enough traffic could be generated to justify the expense, also depending on the destination being rail connected.
Royal mail traffic would be absolutely ideal for moving around by high speed rail, as it generally is very time sensitive and lightweight. For some reason, long distance mail often goes by air these days
