Great Britain has a long, illustrious history with the railway. The railway network itself has been used to transport various types of goods since the early 19th century. As time progressed the majority of freight transportation began to be carried out by use of the roads. Despite this there has been a recent increase in the use of railway freight use, a 5.8% rise compared to 2012-13.
During the First World War in the early 20th century, Britain’s railway was used primarily for the transportation of munitions and supplies. It was dubbed the “Railway War” at the time. The supplies were transported all over Great Britain to ports in the South East of England for shipping to France where the war was raging at the time.
Today rail freight consists more of civilian used materials. Goods carried by rail are either stored in intermodal containers or trainload freight containers, which hold coal, metals, oil and construction materials.