Countries all over Europe are facing the challenging task of taking goods off the road and putting them on the rails. In order to do its part, the port of Southampton introduced a financial incentive to boost such a modal shift. The UK’s third largest port has been providing a 70 pound subsidy for each container put on the rails. It seems to have been rather successful: the port has boosted its share of rail in outbound freight significantly.
The Southampton port started the scheme in September of 2023. It imposed a 10 pound (12 euros) fee for each laden container arriving in the port, and used that money to provide a 70 pound (84 euros) impetus to put containers on trains.
The scheme worked: 64,300 trucks have been taken off the road, the equivalent of 6 million road miles (9,65 million kilometres) and 17,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to port operator DP World.
Modal shift
Perhaps even more importantly, the scheme managed to boost the share of rail in outbound container traffic significantly. Whereas one in five containers left the port via rail only a year ago, now that number is up to one in three. In two years from now, the port wants to reach a 40 per cent benchmark.
Since the rail subsidy was introduced, various new container rail services have been introduced. There are now container trains going to Birmingham, Cardiff and the East Midlands Gateway terminal, all within a range of 140 miles (225 kilometres), the maximum distance for containers to be eligible for the scheme. A service to Doncaster, further north and therefore beyond the maximum 140-mile range, was also launched.