Intra-UK rail freight service launches operations

A new intra-UK rail freight link operating between Teesport and Manchester’s Trafford Park has completed its inaugural service.

This service could eliminate up to 40 heavy vehicle movements from the congested Trans Pennine road network for each one-way trip, aiming to help businesses in both the North East and North West reduce carbon emissions and avoid delays.

Running five days a week as part of a trial, the service is a collaboration between Direct Rail Services (DRS) and PD Ports, which operates a dedicated rail freight terminal at Tees Dock.

For the first time, the service connects Teesport, and the wider North East, with Manchester’s Trafford Park rail freight terminal, transporting modern high-cube containers. This offers additional capacity and greater efficiency for the supply chain.

Gottfried Eymer, DRS’s managing director for rail, stated: “This new trial offers a new route to customers who may not have considered rail before. It is an open-access service which will amalgamate different customers into one train, saving time and cost. Rail is much more environmentally friendly when compared to road, producing up to 76% fewer CO2 emissions, while each train can remove up to 40 HGVs from the roads, reducing congestion. This is a fantastic opportunity for customers new to rail and we’d welcome anyone considering a switch to rail to get in touch.”

Furthermore, the service utilizes ultra-low IDA wagons, allowing for the transportation of 9’6’’ high cube containers (compared to the standard 8’6’’ height) over non-gauge enhanced and height-restricted routes across the Pennines.

Teesport, with its direct connections to major hub ports across Europe, benefits from more than 20 short-sea vessel calls each week to key markets such as Iberia, Scandinavia, the Baltics, the Netherlands, and Poland. Teesport’s Container Terminal also offers RoRo and LoLo services, along with in-house road and rail solutions, warehousing, and value-added services.

This new Trans Pennine service can accommodate 45ft containers, unlocking new opportunities in the short-sea shipping market for cargo arriving and departing from Teesport via RoRo and LoLo services.

Jo Edmenson, PD Ports’ key account manager for rail freight services, commented: “Trans Pennine connections for operators looking to move goods across the country have been confined to road freight for many years due to the constraints of the rail network, with height restrictions at stations, bridges and tunnels causing several issues. There is much anticipation about the Trans Pennine upgrade, which will hopefully remove many of those blockages, but with a completion date of 2030, we felt that was too long to wait when we considered the importance of rail freight as a means of decarbonising the supply chain and removing road movements from congested major routes.”

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