'The future of freight is bright': Boosting safety and growth

In this episode, we're joined by Andrea Rossi. Andrea is the CEO of DB Cargo UK and a non-executive director on the RSSB Board.

Together, we'll explore the current rail freight landscape, what the future might hold for the sector, and how RSSB fosters collaboration and innovation to ensure continued safety and growth in this area. 

Find out more at: https://www.rssb.co.uk/safety-and-health/freight-safety 

Transcript

Host [00.17]: It’s no secret that the rail industry is facing a good deal of change at the moment. From a rapidly changing climate to renationalisation, there’s lots to navigate. And it’s freight in particular that we’re here to talk about today. Freight businesses have their own unique set of challenges in addition to those already mentioned. They must be ready to innovate if they’re to achieve the modal shift required to meet the sector’s growth target. 

So, with us today is Andrea Rossi. Andrea is the CEO of DB Cargo UK and a non-executive director on the RSSB board. In this episode, we’ll explore the current rail freight landscape, what the future might hold for the sector, and how RSSB fosters collaboration and innovation to ensure continued safety and growth in this area. 

Hi, Andrea, and thank you for joining us today. 

Andrea Rossi [01.00]: Hi Jasmin. Great to be here. 

Host [01.01]: So, to start, can you set the scene for us a little? What would you say are the key priorities for the rail freight sector in 2025? 

Andrea [01.08]: Sure, I think I can point out three key priorities for the freight sector. I think the first one, first and foremost, we need to keep focus on the relentless pursuit of safe operations because as I say to my organisation, to my people, if we don’t deliver safe operations, our customers take that for granted. We will have no business. It’s as simple as that. So, we must not be complacent and continually strive for continuous improvement in this area. That’s non-negotiable. 

I think the second main priority is to continue pushing for modal shift. The UK, I’m not sure if you know, is probably one of the worst-performing countries in Europe in terms of modal split. The rail portion or share of that is a mere 7%, with water 12% and road being 81%. I think France and the UK share probably the last spots, and there are countries such as Germany at 18%, or even Austria and Switzerland well above 30%, I think we need to strive for in terms of target setting. 

And I think the third one, which is quite topical, is around rail reform. I think we as an industry need to ensure that our rights and protections that we enjoy today, such as access to the network and escalation mechanisms to the ORR, etc., are maintained, and we’re not dwarfed by setting up of GBR and the whole rail reform process. 

Host [02.34]: And in your opinion, what needs to happen across the wider rail industry for that to happen? 

Andrea [02.38]: Sure. Well, if I take the first two topics that I mentioned before, in terms of safety, I think collaboration is key. The rail freight industry is a very competitive environment. We compete against each other. However, on safety, we do collaborate because it’s in the best interest of everybody. We have that duty of care, and we can learn from each other. So, for me, best practice wins there. And it’s key, and we have a good track record of this, to be fair, and I was literally a few weeks ago in the RSSB offices, where you hosted a presentation of the results from the Wagon Condition Monitoring Programme from the Rail Freight Safe Programme. And I think that was a tremendous example of how the industry—whether it’s freight operating companies, whether it’s the customers, Network Rail—can all rally together and presented a great showcase of collaboration and innovation there. In fact, the ORR mentioned that it was probably one of the best examples of collaboration in industry that they’ve ever seen in the last decade. So, I was really proud of being part of that. And it’s something that I definitely sponsor, going forward, and champion. 

And on the modal split side and the modal shift side of things, well, I think the main topic here is to reduce the gap between road and rail costs. That, so I mentioned competition before, but actually a real competitor is not another peer freight operating company, it’s actually road. And that’s who we need to fight against. And just to give you a stat—which we mandated through Rail Partners, which was a trade body that we were members of, and it was research—rail freight track access costs have risen by 26% in real terms since 2015, and that is versus road charges falling by 41% over the same period. So, that gap is actually widening the further on we go, and it just shows the sheer scale of the challenge that we as an industry, as a rail freight industry, are facing, and we need to overcome. 

Host [04.36]: Thanks, Andrea. Now, when you and I chatted for RSSB’s Horizon magazine back in, I think, June 2024, we discussed how rail freight had changed over your time in the sector. So, looking further ahead now, what do you think the future of freight looks like?

Andrea [04.50]: I’m convinced that the future of rail freight has got a bright future ahead of itself. We definitely need to be able to tackle this issue around costs that I just mentioned before because that will be the key for us succeeding as a sector. I think there’s a broader understanding about, especially after COVID, around the purpose and how much value we bring to the economy, to the environment, and to society as a whole, as a rail freight sector. We just now need to kind of beat the economic reality of the business world that sometimes trumps these kind of benefits that everybody understands and gets—you know, they’re all no brainers—but in the end, it’s the economics that dictate the behaviours of certain customers. 

So, I think that is the focus, and we’re all laser focused on that in terms of the rail freight industry and community in order to achieve that and grow our share in the market and that model split market that I mentioned earlier, because we need to grow rail freight. There is, thankfully, a rail freight growth target set by the government [that] needs to be seen as a floor, which is 75% by 2050, but that needs to be seen as a floor not a ceiling. And we need to really push together in order to create the conditions and the framework in order to be able to achieve that. 

Host [06.08]: Thank you, Andrea. And as one of RSSB’s Board members, can you tell us a little about the support and guidance that we offer to rail freight businesses—particularly in regard to achieving the sustained growth and safety improvements we’re all striving for?

Andrea [06.20]: Well, I’m very proud to be part of the RSSB Board and to be able to—also from a member perspective, as a member for freight and non-passenger—to be able to promote the work, the fantastic work that RSSB does for the industry. I think the fact that the RSSB is an independent body is really helpful, especially in the rail freight industry, because of the commercial and competitive nature of our working environment. The independence element is really helpful. It has the headspace, the RSSB has the headspace, the funding, to be able to carry out the research that you do, to be able to look at certain topics that really actually help the bottom line of our companies and all of our members. 

And that’s really the added value, and the focus needs to be how RSSB, through its work, can add value to the bottom line of its members and always make sure and enable members to understand that if we were to be able to choose to be members of RSSB, at the moment we can’t, but if we were able, we would absolutely do so because of the value that RSSB brings to us. And it brings to us value not only in the areas of safety, as it’s normally generally known, but also in terms of health and wellbeing, which is an area that actually is becoming more and more important for us as businesses and as members to look at, and also for sustainability. And I think RSSB’s Sustainable [Rail] Blueprint is definitely one of the points of reference for the industry in order to start building policies around sustainability in all various areas of sustainability in ESG, and it’s a great tool to anchor one’s own policies toward.

Host [08.04]: Thank you, that’s great. And I’d like to pick up on our Freight Research Programme in particular now, if I may. So, can you share with us any positive member stories that have arisen from this programme? 

Andrea [08.13]: Of course. For us as a rail freight company, you know, one of the key topics to try and improve our performance and our efficiency—and we talked about this a lot throughout our business—is to try and do longer, heavier, and faster trains. And I think, exactly, and that’s what I was meaning before, when RSSB actually plays to deliver on key topics that add value to a business, this is definitely one area that impacts all rail freight companies. 

There’s one project as part of the Freight Research Programme [that] is focused on developing improved sectional running time values for freight services. So, for example, this has been used on the Network Rail Wales route to develop December 2025 timetable changes for new freight flows associated with Tata’s electric arc furnace being constructed, thus supporting freight growth. 

On the heavier front, there’s a project that looks at improving trailing load limits for freight trains. Again, here, there’s been modelling done by part from RSSB on creating greater capability on various routes, for example, on the Southampton to Robertsbridge route for the Gypsum traffic and the Suffolk branch line for major infrastructure projects, where capacity was constrained, or from a mine head in northeast England to increase train payload. So, these are concrete examples of how RSSB has helped the freight industry to increase the loads on their trains.

And finally, we often talk about longer and heavier, but actually, there’s always this third element that I try to emphasise, which is faster, because faster brings also benefits. And that’s through improved pathing for shorter journey times. Because that not only reduces the times to operate services, which reduces costs from a freight perspective on track access on fuel and energy and instances, but also in terms of sustainability and less emissions. So, for example, one example is an improved pathing option identified on the Felixstowe to Trafford Park services, where the newly identified path results in reduced overall journey time by approximately 4 hours and a reduction of 1.6 tonnes of CO2 per day. So, again here, I think some great examples of how RSSB is adding value to the freight operating company’s bottom line. 

Host [10.32]: That’s brilliant. Thanks, Andrea. I think those examples really do speak volumes about how our research is helping the sector, and it’s also really clear to see the value of working together towards this common goal, especially in such a complex landscape as this one. 

And finally, then, to end on a high, what do you think is one of freight’s underappreciated strengths? 

Andrea [10.52]: Well, I’ve heard many people sometimes say, ‘Oh, you know, I’m not bothered with the railways. I don’t use the railways.’ Well, that actually is not true because as our former rail minister once said, actually everyone is a railway customer because everyone will have used some of the goods that have been transported by rail. So, rail freight touches everyone’s lives really, whether it’s directly or indirectly.

Maybe a bit more of a fun fact on rail freight. Well, as you know, one rail freight train can actually replace 129 heavy goods vehicles in terms of the amount of material that we can carry. So, you know, with the government’s new kind of ambitions of building many more houses, that translates into one rail freight actually carries the equivalent material of 51 houses to be built. So, maybe that’s a fun fact or statistic to take back home and tell your kids tonight. 

Host [11.49]: Andrea, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you for listening.

If you want to learn more about how RSSB is supporting freight safety and growth, please visit our website. 

We look forward to you joining us for the next episode and in the meantime, safe travels.