The freight corridor that nobody wanted is suddenly busy
A rail route built for a trade pattern that never materialised is carrying record tonnage for entirely different reasons.
When the line opened it was described, not unfairly, as a railway to nowhere. The trade flows it was designed to serve took a different route, and for years the corridor ran at a fraction of capacity.
Then shipping lanes to the south became unreliable, insurance premiums tripled, and a journey that had been uncompetitive on cost became attractive on certainty.
Tonnage has risen sharply for six consecutive quarters. Terminal operators at both ends have added shifts, and the bottleneck has shifted from the track itself to the customs halls, which were sized for the traffic the planners expected rather than the traffic that arrived.
Freight forwarders are cautious about calling it permanent. Much of the volume is rerouted rather than new, and it would return south quickly if conditions normalised.
For the moment, the governments that spent a decade defending the investment are enjoying an unfamiliar silence from their critics.
