UK Government will have to take action on fuel duty for Railways to be able to compete

Transform Scotland has submitted its response to the UK Department for Transport’s ‘A Railway Fit For Britain’s Future’ consultation.

You can read both our response and the Scottish Association for Public Transport’s response at the end of this page.

In our response, Transform welcomes the DfT’s aim to bring track and train together as this should aid planning, both short and long term, increase efficiency of operations, and reduce overall costs.

However, UK Ministers will also have to take action in other areas of transport for the railways to again become competitive on price with road transport. Transform rail spokesperson Paul Tetlaw said:

“Government policy on fuel duty plays a key role in the choice of mode for both passenger and freight services. For freight, access charges have increased by 105% for bulk and over 80% for intermodal since 2010 while fuel duty on road transport has been frozen since 2010 and further reduced since 2022. Electricity costs for freight operators are another key element in the attractiveness and affordability of electric traction. Here we’ve had the bizarre consequence of operators reverting to diesel traction on electrified sections of railway which runs counter to any decarbonisation aims and eats into valuable capacity on the network.”

Transform Scotland is critical of the DfT’s plans for failing to set out a clear vision for the railway or a real sense of direction. Paul Tetlaw commented:

“The planning, development and operation of the railway all require long-term and consistent strategies. For it to be a success and play a key role in economic, social and environmental policies this has to sit within the appropriate broader government policies on transport and land use planning. We must move away from the simplistic approach that considers the cost of the railway as merely a balance between money raised from passengers and taxpayers to a wider understanding of the value delivered to society as a whole.”

In particular, Transform stresses the need for five-year funding cycles to be extended across the whole of the railway. Paul Tetlaw said:

“The rail supply industry must have confidence in long-term plans on matters such as electrification and rolling stock replacement to allow them to make their own plans; this will reduce costs and increase efficiency. We must never see a return to the ‘hand to mouth existence’ typified by annual settlements, while suffering from the short-term whims of government ministers. These conditions only serve to undermine trust in the UK and to increase costs: it is only to be expected if suppliers decide to focus on overseas markets if they deem the UK to lack long-term plans, and is seen to be unreliable with regard to whatever plans may have in place at any given time.”