Editing Railfreight Distribution (section)

==History==
In the 1980s, freight traffic on the railway was in decline, due to a mixture of increased competition from [[road transport]], a shrinking network that had reduced rail's reach and a decline in the domestic manufacturing industry, reducing internal demands for raw materials and transport of finished product for export. By the late 1980s, British Rail  In October 1988, took three troublesome divisions of their freight operations; Speedlink ([[wagonload]]), Freightliner ([[Intermodal container|Container]]), Railfreight International (International traffic) and merged them into one entity, Railfreight Distribution. 
<ref name="Gourvish">{{cite book |last1=Gourvish |first1=Terry |last2=Anson |first2=Mike |title=British Rail, 1974-97: From Integration to Privatisation |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-926909-2 |pages=283–291 |edition=Paperback}}</ref> 

In 1991, following multiple years of losses, Speedlink was shut down. The losses were largely related to the costs involved with [[Shunting (rail)|operations]] at [[Classification yard|marshalling yards]] and drop off and pick up of wagons at sidings amounted to 80% of total expenses. It was determined services only became economical if the wagons were moving over {{convert|500|mi|km}}, or in at least 10 wagon loads daily.<ref name="Gourvish"/> However, approximately 70% of former Speedlink traffic was transitioned to more efficient trainload operations via trunk-haul or contracted train-loads.<ref name="Gourvish"/> Railfreight Distribution turned its sights on the [[Channel Tunnel]], which it would be responsible for conveying freight trains through, in cooperation with French train operator [[SNCF]]. Lessons learned from the elimination of wagonload operations created a push to emphasise and expand long-distance trips, such as Freightliner container traffic from ports in [[Port of Felixstowe|Felixstowe]], [[Port of Southampton|Southampton]], and [[London Thamesport]]. This push also would position Railfreight Distribution for an expected increase in freight traffic from [[Europe]] with the opening of the Channel Tunnel during the mid-1990s. However, this traffic would not materialize until after 2000.<ref name="Gourvish"/>