Speedlink Volume 2 The Air-braked 'New' BatchesSpeedlink Volume 2 The Air braked 'New' Batches 25. 00 Speedlink was launched in 1977 as an attempt to arrest the decline in British Rail's wagonload freight business. One of the things that distinguished Speedlink workings from almost all of the freight services that had preceded them was that all the wagons used were air braked. At its peak in the mid 1980s, it carried over 8 million tonnes annually. Despite this, Speedlink was never profitable, and