The UK Freight Transport Association (FTA) is urging the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) to make clear to infrastructure provider Network Rail that it has to reduce its charges levied on freight train operating companies using its network between 2009 and 2014.

The call is intended to increase competitiveness in a bid to encourage more businesses to transport their goods by rail as opposed to road, which clogs up the nation's motorway network and increases the amount of greenhouse gases released into the environment.

The demand more significantly follows the findings of a consultation paper undertaken by ORR to examine the viability of imposing caps on freight track access charges for the period in question, a report by Materials Handling World magazine said.

The FTA is supportive of ORR's proposal to introduce a theoretical cap on the costs for freight to access the network. However, it would like the caps to be regarded as a theoretical maximum for any increase imposed on rail freight customers and not a figure for Network Rail to work towards setting.

"The long-term contractual nature of rail freight flows, which can often be for 10 years, means that rail customers must be confident that Network Rail's culture is of cost reduction. Rail needs this to stay up with the liberalised road freight market where carriers are constantly innovating and run on wafer thin margins," said Chris MacRae, FTA's Rail Freight and global supply chain service manager.