Inland and coastal navigation isn’t the solution to the UK’s transport woes. In the ports, container handling will still be managed by overpaid and militant dockworkers union members. This problem is common to the entire developed world.
The fundimental problem is the UK hasn’t had an active or fully funded transport policy since before the Thatcher era. Highway use has exploded during the last two and a half decades, but there hasn’t been a coresponding expenditure on infrastructure. In truth, container carrying trucks aren’t clogging Britains roads. Private cars are the real culprit for gridlock. Despite the best efforts of governments to tax automobile use beyond the means of the average citizen, the British people refuse to be deprived of their automobiles. Until the expansion of the motorway network is restarted, the problem of roadway overuse will never be solved in the UK.
It doesn’t help that the UK’s railways carry an abnormally small fraction of freight. Before privatization, British Railways did nothing to attract new freight business and followed a business model that concentrated on the unprofitable passenger business – and privatization didn’t turn around Britain’s railway system. In contrast, private railroads in the United States concentrated on the cheap and efficient shipment of containers – and got entirely out of the passenger business. Today American freight railroads are immensely profitable – and their bread and butter is the container business.
In the United States, inland and coastal navigation has its role, but typically only for the shipment of bulk commodities, not containerized freight.
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