ALTHOUGH the forecast for passenger numbers in the recovery from Covid-19 is gloomy, a different picture has emerged for freight operations. The growth in online shopping has increased the need for rail served distribution centres to provide capacity for imported goods received from ports.
Rail has benefitted from this trend and despite the economic disruption caused by the pandemic, statistics published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show that intermodal traffic recovered to a level above the previous year in the six months to March 2021.