? Regarding Speedlink and car-load freight in the UK...

Having just read another page from Mike Smith's Goods and Not So Goods, this time on modern-era Private Owner stock, he mentions a lot of these wagons were idled after Speedlink was terminated in 1991.
Interestingly enough, there seems to be no Wiki on Speedlink, albiet there are a number of wiki articles on the 'multitude of BR brandings in the 1980s & 1990s, including Railfreight Distribution, and how the various brands were packaged and repackaged until 1996, when Load-Haul, Mainline Freight and Trans-Rail were purchased by EWS.

(Aside: for some reason I find this wiki-quote both hilarious and a big 'DUH' to the British Government: "The UK Government had hoped to sell the three trainload freight companies as separate businesses to encourage competition. But few bidders were interested in individual companies because of the threat of competition from the other two")

Anyway, Google did bring up an excerpt from Parlimentary readings on the topic of Speedlink, and it was pretty much the same gobble-good you see in the Congressional record when our Congress is planning to dump a program and doesn't wish to be tied down as to why (namely, money). And so I guess that was that for Speedlink.

So, for those in the know...
How and what did Speedlink do anyway (I surmise handling car-load, er wagon-load freight, I suppose in what we call locals)?
Why did they kill it off in the early 1990s - was it really losing all that much money, or did the Major government just not want to deal with it?
Has EWS re-established wagon-load frieght in any capacity?
The branding and rebranding of BR seemed rather absurd toward the end, but I understand that intermodal, express, and train-load freight was handled by seperate companies (as, I suppose, wagon-load freight would have) - how was this handled say in the 1970s, under BR, and how has it sorted itself out nowadays (Goods and Not So Goods does get updated now and then, but a lot of its content seems from the late 1990s).

Bonus question - apparently in the 1970s and 1980s there was a government program to help companies add private sidings - any more history on this - (our library used to get Whitaker's Almanack, and I believe that's were I read this)?

Sir Ray wrote:
(Aside: for some reason I find this wiki-quote both hilarious and a big 'DUH' to the British Government: "The UK Government had hoped to sell the three trainload freight companies as separate businesses to encourage competition. But few bidders were interested in individual companies because of the threat of competition from the other two")

There are in fact several freight companies just the same. There is Freightliner, and DRS and at least two others. EWS is the biggest but they do have some competition.

As to wagonload I am not sure. There was an experimental service proposed that would be a modern version of wagonload - a stopping train, perhaps with a freight DMU that would pick up in various places with simple equipment. I am not sure if it started or not.

george matthews wrote: There are in fact several freight companies just the same. There is Freightliner, and DRS and at least two others. EWS is the biggest but they do have some competition.

Yeah, I know you're right - I'm looking at wiki right now
Besides EWS,
Freightliner was the container division of BR, now also has a 'Heavy Haul' division
Direct Rail Service, created to Haul Nuclear materials, but now also handling intermodal contracts it snagged from EWS
Fastline - according to their website, seems to be intermodal only.
GB Railfreight - hmm, intermodal, some bulk traffic...and the Royal Mail
Mendip Rail - which handles aggragates, and seems to predate EWS by at least a decade.
Fair enough, but I was laughing at the original concept of bidding out three freight operating companies to enhance competition, and no one was going for it...

As to wagonload I am not sure.

Ah yes, my original question, at least in regards to Speedlink's origin, I found later on, yep, Goods and Not So Goods (this guy covers almost everything you'd need to model UK railroads, including worker's uniforms, road markings, street peddlers wagons, and even the dog poop recepticals in parks - wow ).
It was under Air Braked Network, Speedlink and Enterprise wagon load services, and gives the history, operations, and a map of Speedlink facilities, and indicates that Speedlink was saddled with money losing ferry operations, and that the other freight sectors were nabbing long haul wagon-load traffic themselves, among other things which killed a promising and rational system.
Now, while that answered my questions on Speedlink, there is this:

In 1994 Transrail ... re-introduced an all air braked wagon-load service under the working name of Enterprise. This area has seen further investment and aggressive business hunting by English Welsh and Scottish Railways... Although small in scale compared to Speedlink the Enterprise service is still growing and apparently turning in a steady profit. In the four years between 1994 and 1998 freight train movements increased by about 60%

Since 1998 was almost 8 years ago, I wonder what's happening nowadays (as I find car-load/wagon-load service the most interesting of railroad operations, especially with fairly modern (1970s-1980s) bogie-design European/UK rolling stock).
Also, I find it somewhat amazing the clear divisions between vacuum brake service and air-brake service (not to mention 'unfitted' wagon stock), as North American rolling stock was pretty much all air-brake fitted by the early 20th century. You'd think that BR sometime in the 1950s (after the rationing and shortages were over) would have said - "OK, starting now, each wagon will be rotated out of service and fitted for air-brakes, so that all stock is converted within 2 years", but I guess not.

I also found that the government funding for private siding installation was called 'Section Eight Grants' (here in the US, this phrase refers to private/public housing subsidies).

section 8 grants were often lauded here in NZ , as something our government should have done .
Basically , the government would pay for a siding or other infrastructure , if the business and british rail could prove it would take so many tryuckloads of the roads per year . there was some kind of formula for working this out , and they got more money if the road the traffice was taken off , was "enviromentally sensitive" ,i quess roads that went through quiet villages etc .