Wagonload freight

In rail freight transportation the terms wagonload or wagonload freight refer to trains made of single wagon consignments of freight. In the US and Canada the term carload refers to trains made of single boxcar consignments of freight.

With competition from road transport rail freight transport is increasingly operated as trainload or "unit train", with wagonload less able to compete with road haulage.

As of 2012 in Europe wagonload freight represents 30 to 40 percent of freight carried in many countries including France, Italy, Germany, Belgium; in other countries, including the UK and Romania, wagonload freight is a very minor aspect of rail freight transport representing less than 5% of rail freight transport.

Wagonload traffic typically consists of individual wagons load with goods at separate locations (goods shed), transferred to marshalling yards where the wagons are sorted by destination, then transported to a destination marshalling yard where individual wagons are separated and collected into trains per destination.

Wagonload is a diminishing sector or rail freight transport in the EU, - the percentage of rail freight transported as wagonload diminished from 45% to 35% from the late 1980s to 90s. The relative extent of wagon load traffic within the Europe varies considerably; in the 1990s within the EU an EFTA wagonload traffic accounted for approximately 40% of rail freight, whilst in eastern European counties the percentage was higher, around 60%.

In France wagonload freight (equivalent term « wagon isolé »), though unprofitable continued to be operated by SNCF (2010), wagonload freight was responsible for a significant operating losses in the SNCF group in the first decade of the 21st century, with low productivity levels, including freight terminals that were inactive over periods of months. As a result, SNCF began to seek solutions for the profitability options, including using considering the use of US style "shortline" operators on branch networks. In 2009 approximately 50% of SNCF's railfreight was wagonload. A 'multi-lots, multi-clients' contracting system was introduced in 2010 in an attempt to move towards more profitable freight work, and cut on demand wagonload services on lightly utilised routes.

In Germany wagonload traffic decreased by 10% from 1994 to 2010, but still represented 30% of railfreight in Germany.

In the United Kingdom the wagonload system was reduced by the consequences of the implementation of the report The Reshaping of British Railways 1963 (Beeching Axe): cuts to the system included the closure of marshalling yards (reduced by over one third by 1965), and 60% of freight stations - though the initial cuts had no effect on volume of freight carried. Wagonload freight was still loss making in 1965 despite the closures - making a loss of £40 million (from a £54million loss in 1961). No improvement in profitability had been achieved by 1966, despite the economies, and in part exacerbated by the cuts.

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