A bridge over the railway in Oxford is being rebuilt as part of a £71m scheme which will remove up to 50,000 lorry journeys a year from the region’s roads. This will provide a cheaper, quicker and more practical way of transporting goods around the country.

The route will take freight trains from Southampton to the West Coast Main Line near Nuneaton, via Winchester, Basingstoke, Didcot, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Warwick. Improvement works are being planned along this route to structures which are not currently large enough for high-cube containers to pass through. These are scheduled for completpon by spring 2011.

The A34 is one of the most congested roads in the country and much of the traffic is HGVs transporting goods to and from Southampton port. With the cost of road congestion to the British economy estimated at more than £10bn a year, the project will provide vital extra capacity to get freight off the roads and onto the railway.

The upgrade of the bridge carrying Old Abingdon Road over the railway at South Hinksey is required to allow bigger 9’6” or ‘high-cube’ containers to be transported efficiently by rail from Associated British Ports' Port of Southampton across the country, making a valuable contribution to the local economy and helping Britain compete better in the global marketplace. The current freight container market is seeing a significant growth in the percentage of ‘high cube’ containers. The usage of 9’ 6” containers currently stands at over 40%. and is expected to rise to between 50% and 70% by 2019.

High cube containers are larger than standard containers, and therefore more items can be transported within them, making them a more efficient means of distributing goods. Rail can be a cheaper, quicker and a more practical way for businesses to transport their goods around the country and beyond. At present high cube containers are too big to be carried on standard height platform wagons on much of the rail network. Therefore the only way to carry them by rail is on special low wagons. However, this reduces efficiency and capacity by up to 33%.

Chris Rayner, Network Rail route director, said: “Britain relies on rail freight to get food onto supermarket shelves, consumer goods into our shops, coal to our power stations and raw materials to manufacturing businesses. Rail freight directly contributes £870m to the economy, takes tens of thousands of vehicles off the road to reduce congestion and produces 76% less carbon dioxide than road freight.

“Moving freight by rail is greener, faster and cheaper than the roads. Schemes such as the upgrade of the railway between Southampton and the West Midlands are vital for these benefits to be achieved now and into the future.  We thank the people of Oxford for their patience and co-operation while we carry out this important work.”

Work at Old Abingdon Road will begin in November and will be complete by March 2011. The road over the bridge itself will be closed for the majority of this time with some re-openings during December. Engineers will work over Christmas Day and Boxing Day to remove the existing bridge while the railway is closed, meaning rail passengers will not be affected. Residents and local businesses have been informed of the work schedule and will be kept updated throughout the project.

It is estimated this scheme will enable the transfer of up to 50,000 container freight journeys a year from the Britain’s roads to the railway. This will help reduce carbon emissions and ease traffic congestion on the road network.

Rail is also one of the most environmentally friendly forms of transport.  Road freight generates six times more carbon dioxide than rail freight for each tonne moved, so the greater transfer of freight from road to rail as a result of this scheme will lead to a significant reduction of carbon emissions.

Funding for this project has been agreed from the Department for Transport (DfT) via a Transport Innovation Fund TIF(P) grant.  Additional funding is being provided by South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), ABP, DP World Southampton, Advantage West Midlands (AWM), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Network Rail Discretionary Fund.

The upgraded rail freight link will improve the competitiveness and encourage economic growth within the South East region. This project will also make it easier to import and export goods, helping Britain compete more effectively in the global market.