Rail freight operator Heavy Haul Rail (HHR) has called for stronger aggregation of smaller shippers and more targeted infrastructure investment to help unlock the UK’s ambition to shift significantly more freight from road to rail by 2050. Speaking in an exclusive interview with RailFreight.com, Richard Mannion, Head of Solutions Development, expressed his opinion that the sector must do more to convert latent demand into operational traffic through better commercial structures and clearer customer engagement.
Mannion argued that while established bulk and intermodal users already understand rail’s advantages, the challenge lies in persuading new customers. He said misconceptions around complexity, speed and inflexibility still persist. “For businesses that don’t currently use rail freight, there’s often a perception that it’s difficult, cumbersome and slow,” he said. “Many of those perceptions are simply misconceptions that can be overcome by providing the right information.”
Perceptions and barriers to new users
Mannion said the existing rail freight base remains relatively stable, particularly in bulk and containerised markets where users are already embedded in rail supply chains. However, he warned that expanding beyond this core group requires a more proactive approach from operators and the wider industry. Heavy Haul Rail (HHR), spun out of the sale of Freightliner’s intermodal operations in the UK, is focused on developing high-volume, heavy freight solutions across industrial supply chains.
“From my perspective, the economics work when you find the sweet spot between volume and frequency,” explained Mannion. “Rail has a high fixed-cost base, so it needs to be used intensively to realise the benefits.” He added that the key challenge is identifying customers with sufficient scale to justify investment, particularly where logistics decisions are driven by short-term cost pressures rather than long-term efficiency or emissions reduction.
Aggregation loads, not just loads of aggregates
A major constraint, Mannion argued, is that many potential rail users no longer have the standalone volumes required to support dedicated services. This has increased the importance of intermediaries and consolidators in building viable flows. That’s where aggregators such as the Scottish-headquartered multimodal operators Russell Group and Malcolm Group play an important role.“They work with customers that don’t have sufficient volume to fill an entire train,” observed Mannion.
He added that investment remains a significant hurdle, particularly where rail connections to industrial sites have been removed in the past. “If a business wants to connect its site to the railway, the cost can be substantial,” he said. “What may appear to be a saving when a connection is removed can ultimately cost customers 10 million, 20 million or even 40 million pounds to reinstate later.”
Infrastructure and connectivity issues
Mannion highlighted what he described as a structural contradiction in UK rail infrastructure policy, where efforts to reduce costs have sometimes led to the removal of rail connections that could support future growth. That’s something which makes growing the market, for businesses like Heavy Haul Rail, all the more challenging. It’s a policy that needs to change.
“In the UK, however, we have something of a paradox,” he said. “The infrastructure manager seeks to reduce costs by removing legacy connections, while at the same time customers are looking for opportunities to access the railway.” He noted that even sites located adjacent to rail lines may lack usable connections, forcing freight onto road for the final miles to terminals.
Gauge constraints and future markets
While gauge enhancement has historically been a focus of industry lobbying, Mannion suggested that progress has stalled in recent years. He said earlier achievements in achieving W10 and W12 clearance across parts of the network had not been followed by equivalent ambition for new freight flows. “The next thing we should be lobbying for is finding ways of moving more commodity transport from road to rail,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that gauge constraints are less significant in traditional bulk markets such as cement, petrochemicals or other commodities carried in purpose-built wagons. He added that emerging flows such as hydrogen and CO₂ in containerised form could introduce new gauge considerations, but argued that these should not distract from more immediate opportunities in conventional bulk.
Shifting long-distance freight from road to rail
Mannion said the industry should place greater emphasis on converting long-distance road movements into rail-based solutions, even where final-mile distribution remains road-dependent. He argued that the greatest environmental and operational gains come from shifting trunk haulage to rail.
“We should be working much harder to move more freight onto rail and remove large numbers of long-distance lorry journeys from the road network,” Mannion said. “The final delivery can still be undertaken by road — that’s absolutely appropriate.” He concluded that unlocking this shift will require coordinated effort across operators, infrastructure managers and customers, particularly where aggregation and infrastructure reinstatement are needed to make rail a commercially viable option.