Investigating Freight Corridors Towards Low Carbon Economy: Evidence from the UK

The objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of whether a freight corridor concept, as promoted by the EU TEN-T initiative, is feasible and sound and can be promoted to reduce the environmental (greenhouse gas) impact of long distance freight operation. Research has been conducted to investigate the characteristics of freight corridors across the European Union. This paper reports the analysis of freight corridor links from the UK and Ireland to Duisburg, Germany. This analysis is based on desktop research and interviews with UK freight operators. The findings suggest that the corridor is relatively green and, by its use, has the potential to attract greener freight flow. The key barriers are capacity bottlenecks on road and rail. We found that key improvement opportunities to promote the use of the green corridors are: the uptake of Channel Tunnel surplus capacity; released capacity on rail due to the planned high speed lines; better train management systems and the development of cleaner road transport.