The East Midlands Gateway is a rail freight terminal and intermodal freight centre situated to the west of the village of

Kegworth Kegworth () is a large village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, in the East Midlands region, England. It forms part of the border with Nottinghamshire and is situated 6 miles north of Loughborough, ...

in the English

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East ...

. It is operated by

SEGRO SEGRO plc (formerly known as Slough Estates Group) is a British property investment and development company based in London, England. It develops and invests in property located in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe focusing on edge of to ...

and officially known as the SEGRO Logistics Park East Midlands Gateway (SLPEMG). It is located within the triangle formed by the cities of

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

(),

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

() and

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

(). It has rail access from the Castle Donington line, road access from junction 24 of the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

, and lies immediately to the north of

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in Castle Donington, England. The airport is situated between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is to the south and Lincoln, England, Lincoln northeast. It serves the maj ...

. It thus unites air, road, and rail freight in a central location. The gateway comprises purpose-built rail freight terminal, access roads and a number of

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, out ...

s and

distribution centre A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products (goods) to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to con ...

s, making this distribution hub one of the UK's first inland ports. The rail terminal within the gateway is capable of handling up to 16 trains/day of up to in length, and has space to store more than 5,000 TEU of

shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated box design, corrugated b ...

s. It is linked to the railway network by a specially built branch line, with trains linking other rail freight interchanges, the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

, and ports such as

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, containe ...

and

London Gateway DP World London Gateway is a port within the wider Port of London, on the north bank of the River Thames in Thurrock, Essex. Opened in November 2013, the site is a fully integrated logistics facility, consisting of a semi-automated deep-sea ...

. , ten of the eleven warehouse plots on the site were let, with tenants including

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

Arvato The Arvato Group is a global services company headquartered in Gütersloh, Germany. Its services include customer support, information technology, logistics, and finance. The history of Arvato goes back to the printing and industry services divi ...

DHL DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

Kuehne + Nagel Kuehne + Nagel International AG (or Kühne + Nagel) is a global transport and logistics company based in Schindellegi, Switzerland. Its main owner and operator is Klaus-Michael Kühne via his ''Kühne Holding'' and ''Kühne Foundation ...

Shop Direct The Very Group Limited is a multi-brand online retailer and financial services provider in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head offices are based in the Speke area of the city of Liverpool, England. The brand was established in November 2005 ...

and XPO, Inc. From a local government perspective, the terminal spreads across the civil parishes of

Lockington-Hemington Lockington-Hemington is a civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The parish includes the villages of Hemington and Lockington. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 556, rising to 838 a ...

and

Long Whatton and Diseworth Long Whatton and Diseworth, formerly just Long Whatton is a civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The parish includes the villages of Long Whatton and Diseworth. The population of the parish at the 20 ...

, all of which are in the district of

North West Leicestershire North West Leicestershire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Leicestershire, England. The towns in the district include of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Donington, Coalville, Leicestershire , Coalville (where the council is b ...

and the county of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

History

In 2011, the UK government announced a policy to encourage the development of strategic rail freight interchanges in order to support longer-term development of efficient rail freight distribution logistics. Such SRFIs would be key components in national and international networks, facilitating links between UK regions and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. Plans for the development of a strategic rail freight interchange at East Midlands Gateway were first submitted in 2014, and planning hearings commenced the following year. There were local objections to the proposal leading to the formation of the "J24 Action Group". The main reason for the objections was that the site was green countryside and that other

brownfield Brownfield is previously-developed land that has been abandoned or underused, and which may carry pollution, or a risk of pollution, from industrial use. The specific definition of brownfield land varies and is decided by policy makers and l ...

sites were available. Indeed there was support for what was seen as the positive environmental impact of moving freight from road to rail if it adopted such a site. The objections included a petition to the then

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom and is the Cabinet minister responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of the Ministry of Ho ...

, Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP, which attained 1,331 signatures. Permission to proceed with the proposal was granted on 2 February 2016, with the introduction of the UK Statutory Instrument, ''The East Midlands Gateway Rail Freight Interchange and Highway Order 2016''. Construction was largely completed in 2019, and the first freight train served the interchange on 7 January 2020.

References

{{reflist, 30em Dry ports Economy of Leicestershire Logistics in the United Kingdom North West Leicestershire District Railway freight terminals in the United Kingdom Warehouses in England