BRITAIN'S leading rail freight operator is worried about the future of the upgraded West Coast Main Line.
EWS (English Welsh & Scottish Railway) moves over 100 million tonnes of freight each year and runs more than 7,000 trains each week.
Planning Director Graham Smith told the Railway Civil Engineers Association conference in London that timetable plans being developed for the WCML would force 400 freight trains a day off the route.
He believed it would result in 16,000 lorries a day being squeezed on the congested British road network, inflicting long-term unsustainable damage on the economic performance of Britain and its industries.
Mr Smith said: "This will hurt London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and all parts of Scotland.
"It is vital that the solution for the route involves solid infrastructure improvements and not just fragile re-timetabling."
He claimed the project to upgrade the line had a record of excluding the interests of the rail freight industry and its customers.
Behind-the-scenes lobbying was taking place to undermine the needs of rail freight -- so that the project could be solved quickly in order for Railtrack to be removed from railway administration.
"EWS fears that rail freight will be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency," he said.
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