Cargo rail is saving British businesses GBP1 billion (USD 1.68 billion) annually, according to a new report published by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), a lobby promoting railway interests.
Railways, it said, also fuelling a further GBP 500 million a year in economic, environmental and social benefits by cutting the number of trucks on the nation's roads.
The report based on KPMG analysis said that, last year, 7.6 million road journeys were saved by transporting goods by rail, the equivalent of 7,000 trucks driving from London to Edinburgh every day."
The report states that since the mid-1990s billions of pounds have been invested in the rail freight sector, including on more efficient, longer trains that each carry an average of 50% more cargo than a decade ago.
Over the next five years, rail cargo operators plan to invest hundreds of millions of pounds to carry more goods, faster, more efficiently and with greater reliability.
Investment has helped rail freight in Britain grow 70% in the past 20 years and increase its share of the market for transporting goods, in contrast to some still largely European state-run railways.
The sector now transports GBP 30 billion worth of goods a year from supermarket groceries to half the fuel delivered to power stations to generate electricity.
Chairman of Freightliner and the RDG freight group, Peter Maybury said that "High levels of private sector investment and innovation matched by significant infrastructure improvement are now helping rail freight to bring GBP1.5 billion a year of benefits to Britain's businesses and the wider economy."
"By continuing to drive efficiency and improve performance, operators could help more than double the size of the sector over the next 3 decades and increase the economic benefits of rail freight to over GBP4 billion a year." 7262