In the 1980s, freight traffic on the railway was in decline, due to a mixture of increased competition from road transport, a shrinking network that had reduced rail's reach and a decline in the domestic manufacturing industry, reducing internal demands for raw materials and transport of finished product for export.

The losses were largely related to the costs involved with operations at marshalling yards and drop off and pick up of wagons at sidings amounted to 80% of total expenses.

Lessons learned from the elimination of wagonload operations created a push to emphasise and expand long-distance trips, such as Freightliner container traffic from ports in Felixstowe, Southampton, and London Thamesport.

This push also would position Railfreight Distribution for an expected increase in freight traffic from Europe with the opening of the Channel Tunnel during the mid-1990s.

Also in 1992, three Class 90/1s, (90128, 90129 and 90130), were given "continental" liveries of NMBS/SNCB blue, Deutsche Bahn red and SNCF grey to mark the Freightconnection Conference.