Freight and Logistics

LeighFisher has extensive freight and logistics experience across a wide spectrum of markets and modes. We provide operational and strategic recommendations that address our private and public sector clients’ immediate and long term needs by offering an analytical foundation and in-depth industry knowledge. Our experience ranges from rail freight operators and developers of multimodal freight terminals, and includes the following services: business case support, rail freight grant applications, development of port related rail freight facilities and assistance at public inquiries into new freight facility developments.

We have developed proprietary rail freight costing models to compare the costs of rail with alternative modes of transportation (road and short sea). We have also created proprietary routing models (with both rail and road networks) to evaluate the competitiveness of rail for either single flows, or scenarios where goods are distributed either nationally or regionally. Our analysis also provides estimates of the congestion and emissions impacts for the use of different modes, which forms the basis of sustainable development polices, including the award of freight grants.

We are also very familiar with United Kingdom government policy on rail freight terminals, including those originally developed by the Strategic Rail Authority and subsequently expanded into regional policies. We have a track record of appraising the suitability of potential rail freight terminal sites. Our experience in this area ranges from high level criterion based appraisal (where many options need to be evaluated) to much more involved testing (where the number of options has been refined to a more detailed level).