Rail regulator Tom Winsor has allowed freight charges to drop by 50% to encourage more traffic to switch to rail.

And the Government has set aside £450million for Railtrack to compensate it for the loss of income caused by the reduction in track access charges for freight.

Sadly road freight is still being subsidised to a massive extent by not being required to pay its full "track costs". In simple terms, the Government provides the roads while Railtrack (formerly BR) has to fund the railway.

The consequence over more than 50 years has been the progressive collapse of railfreight.

For a short time, railfreight was booming thanks to the pro-active stance of English Welsh & Scottish Railway under Ed Burkhardt but it is now struggling again.

On a more positive note, Marks & Spencer and Bulmers will be taking part in full-scale commercial trials of new-style freight trains - the freight multiple unit.

Based on the German Cargosprinter, the trains are aimed at the fast-moving consumer goods market and can carry five intermodal units at speeds of up to 75mph.

For more details of the concept:

http://www.windhoff.de/main_e/index040.htm

In the Irish Republic, the government is setting up a task force to see how freight traffic at the country's ports can be switched from road to rail.