The government has set a target to increase the volume of freight moved by rail by at least 40% by 2040, giving Great British Railways an explicit role in expanding the industry’s contribution to UK supply chains.
The new milestone sits beneath an existing ambition for rail freight to grow by at least 75% by 2050. The government estimates that achieving the 2040 target would raise the value of goods moved by rail from £33.7bn to £49.5bn.
More detailed targets envisage a 65% increase in high-value goods moved by rail, a 45% rise in construction goods, and 7% growth in critical goods, measured in net tonne kilometres. Ministers also estimate that shifting the additional freight from road to rail could save around one million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
The Railways Bill currently before Parliament would allow the Transport Secretary to set a statutory freight growth target for Great British Railways, placing freight considerations within the new organisation’s decision-making rather than leaving them as a separate industry objective.
Maggie Simpson, director general of the Rail Freight Group, said: “We welcome this announcement as a further signal of government’s commitment to growing rail freight.”
Translating the national target into capacity will be difficult on a network where passenger and freight services often compete for the same infrastructure. Freight operators require sufficiently reliable paths to run long trains between ports, terminals, distribution centres, quarries, construction sites, and manufacturing regions. Timetable decisions, engineering access, terminal capacity, and gauge clearance can therefore determine whether additional demand can be accommodated.
Rail freight already plays a significant role in moving construction materials, containers, aggregates, and other heavy goods. Its commercial advantage is strongest on longer routes or where large volumes can move between established terminals. Road haulage remains more flexible for many shorter or dispersed journeys, meaning substantial rail growth depends partly on investment in intermodal terminals capable of transferring containers and goods between transport modes efficiently.
The government’s commodity targets point towards a broader mix. Growth in high-value goods would require rail to win more traffic beyond traditional bulk commodities, placing greater emphasis on reliability, service frequency, digital visibility, and connections to logistics parks and distribution centres.
The policy also intersects with port investment. Britain’s major container gateways depend on inland road and rail connections to move imports rapidly away from congested dock areas. Additional rail capacity can reduce lorry movements around ports and major motorway corridors, but only where terminals, paths, locomotives, and wagons are available when shipping schedules require them.
Construction presents a different opportunity. Large infrastructure and housing programmes consume substantial volumes of stone, cement, steel, and other heavy materials. Rail can move those commodities efficiently at scale, although demand depends on the location and timing of major projects.
A statutory growth requirement could change how investment decisions are assessed inside the restructured railway. Freight operations are commercially important but represent a smaller share of train movements than passenger services, making it easier for capacity considerations to become secondary when network performance is under pressure.
Embedding a target inside Great British Railways creates a measurable obligation against which timetable policy, infrastructure investment, and operational decisions can be tested. It does not resolve capacity constraints automatically. Growth of 40% will require private investment from freight operators and terminal owners as well as public decisions on network upgrades.
The target arrives as UK supply chains remain focused on resilience, transport costs, and decarbonisation. Businesses have spent several years responding to disruption across ports, international shipping, road haulage, energy, and labour markets. Diversifying freight capacity can reduce dependence on individual modes, although rail itself remains vulnerable to network disruption and infrastructure constraints.
The 2040 milestone gives operators a longer investment horizon than short-term transport policies normally provide. The commercial test will be whether network capacity and terminal development expand quickly enough for freight companies and their customers to commit capital against that target.
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