Railways have always had their enthusiasts, so it was intriguing to read last week that the rails are humming out of Spain again - this time for the fruit trade, rather than in commuter terms.

Just how far the concept of a high-speed refrigerated link from Valencia into the heart of the UK will roll remains to be seen, but its introduction certainly harks back to the days when Transfesa was the umbilical cord that provided sustenance for the wholesale markets.

That service provided a vital link throughout Europe, where the daily departure dates of the trucks and their contents, published by Reuters, were studied as closely as the race card on Derby Day.

Such was Transfesa’s dominance that importers and others using the service were even sent a model of a new item of rolling stock as a Christmas present to adorn their desks, and once even a celebratory tank engine - now a collectors’ item - commemorating the start of the service in the 1940s.

But transport by land, sea or air - however efficient - has always been a competitive business. In my journalistic lifetime, I have regularly reported on the presence of more and more refrigerated lorries toiling up the Mediterranean coastal road from as far south as Cadiz, bound for the newly built out-of-town produce depots sited mainly in the Kent and East Anglian countryside.

In the 1970s, many importers and English growers who had invested in back-to-back operations on the other side of the Pyrenees had already recognised that change was on the way.

The rail response was to go bigger and better in terms of service, culminating in the multi-million pound Transfesa rail terminal at Paddock Wood - although with the benefit of hindsight, the decision taken now appears to have been nothing more than swimming against the commercial tide.

The reasons for Transfesa’s slow but steady demise, however, were far more complex. In the initial competitive stages, road transport appealed because being more flexible meant that deliveries could be made directly to customers and could also meet the increasingly exacting timetables demanded by the multiple trade.

Such tailor-made systems were more suited to handling many of the more perishable Spanish crops such as grapes, melons, soft fruit and salads - all of which had a far more limited shelf life than citrus, onions and potatoes.

For this same reason, it is improbable that the wheel has now turned full circle, but the news that major operators such as Eddie Stobart, Schenker and Capespan have quantified railfreight’s potential value to The Co-operative reflects the fact that other factors are now coming into play again, changing attitudes towards distribution.

Road transport fuel costs are likely to remain high, but perhaps more significantly, the pressure to create a greener, environmentally healthier world is on many companies’ agendas.

Five years ago, it would have been inconceivable that supermarkets would have labelled airfreighted produce as such, so that customers could make a choice. Ultimately, perhaps, even railways might get the same accolade.

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