Rail Freight In Great Britain
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The railway network in Great Britain has been used to transport
goods In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs ...
of various types and in varying volumes since the early 19th century.
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...
, which owns and maintains the network, aims to increase the amount of goods carried by rail. In 2015–16 Britain's railways moved 17.8 billion net tonne kilometres, a 20% fall compared to 2014–15.Office of Rail Regulation, http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/22008/freight-rail-usage-2015-16-quarter-4.pdf Coal accounted for 13.1% of goods transport in Britain, down considerably from previous years. There are no goods transported by railway in Northern Ireland.


History


Pre-19th century

Even in the 16th century, mining engineers used crude wooden rails to facilitate the movement of mine wagons steered by hand. In Nottingham, 1603, a tramway was constructed to transport coal from mines near Strelley to Wollaton. Horse-drawn lines were increasingly common by the 18th and early 19th centuries, chiefly to haul bulk materials from mines to canal wharves or areas of consumption.


19th century

The world's first steam locomotive engine was demonstrated by
Richard Trevithick Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He ...
in 1804. Steam powered rail freight operated regularly on the
Middleton Railway The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. The ...
, near
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
, long before any passenger services. Many of the early railways of Britain carried goods, including the
Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected coal mining, collieries near with ...
and the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It ...
. The LMR was originally intended to carry goods between the
Port of Liverpool The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of ...
and east Lancashire, although it subsequently developed as mixed passenger-goods railway. The network expanded rapidly as small private firms rushed to build new lines. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, these amalgamated or were bought by competitors until only a handful of larger companies remained (see
Railway mania Railway Mania was a stock market bubble in the rail transportation industry of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern: as the price of railway shares increased, speculators invested more mon ...
). The Post Office began using letter-sorting carriages in 1838, and the railway quickly proved to be a much quicker and more efficient means of transport than the old mail coaches. It was estimated in 1832 that using the LMR to transport mail between the two cities reduced the expense to the government by two-thirds. It was also much faster to send newspapers across Great Britain.


Early 20th century

The First World War was dubbed the "Railway War" at the time. Indeed, thousands of tonnes of munitions and supplies were distributed from all over Great Britain to ports in the South East of England for shipping to France and the Front Line. Due to pre-war inefficiencies in the rail goods transport, a number of economisation programmes were needed to allow the railways to meet with the huge demand that was being put on their services. The Common User Agreement for wagon usage and regulation of coal services through the Coal Transport Act of 1917 are examples of such programmes, which enabled better utilisation of railway assets across the industry. The success of such schemes was entirely down to the collaboration of more than 100 railway companies, who abandoned the fierce competition of the pre-war years to work together in the national interest. In no sector was this more obvious than in rail goods transport. During the Second World War, vast quantities of materials were moved around Britain by rail. During the early stages of the war, goods trains ran to rural stations in
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
to enable airfields to be constructed. In 1944, 500 special trains ran every day on the network and over a million wagons were controlled by the government's Inter-Company Freight Rolling Stock Control organisation. Beer was a major rail-hauled commodity, but gradually switched to the improving road network. The complex network of brewery railways in
Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...
became disused by 1970. Likewise, milk was widely transported by rail until the late 1960s. The last milk tank wagons ran in 1981.


Nationalisation era

Britain's railways were nationalised in 1947 including goods operations. Under the 1955 British Rail Modernisation Plan, massive investment was made in
marshalling yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...
s at a time when the use of small wagon load traffic with which they dealt was in steep decline. Railway freight services had been in steady decline since the 1930s, initially because of the loss of the manufacturing industry and then road haulage's cost advantage in combination with higher wages. By 1959 it was realised that the Modernisation Plans were not working. The wagon load traffic lost £57 million on receipts of £105 million in 1961. Signal boxes would have to be staffed 24 hours a day in order to accept a limited amount of traffic. Even the most rural stations transported goods in the form of postal services; 3,368 stations generated only 4% of
Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...
's receipts. The
Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...
included a reduction in freight services, especially the marshalling yards, to concentrate on long distance bulk transport. In contrast to passenger services, they greatly modernised the goods sector, replacing inefficient wagons with containerised regional hubs. The industry today is very similar to Dr Beeching's vision half a century ago. In the 1980s, British Rail was reorganised into "sectors" including four goods sectors: * Trainload Freight took trainload goods * Railfreight Distribution took non-trainload goods * Freightliner took intermodal traffic *
Rail Express Systems Rail Express Systems (RES) was a sector of British Rail. This sector was responsible for transport of mail and parcels, including the travelling post office trains, as well as taking over charter operations from InterCity (British Rail), InterC ...
took parcel traffic The 1980s, however, also brought a huge down-turn in freight traffic, with the sector increasingly seen as irrelevant and without a future. In 1986, quarrying company Foster Yeoman prompted a turnaround in the reliability of rail freight by obtaining permission to run its own locomotives, and importing the first four EMD class 59s. This design was developed into the class 66 which became widely used by EWS and other operators over a decade later.


Privatisation era

When British Rail was privatised in the 1990s, six freight operating companies (FOCs) were set up: * Trainload goods was split into three geographical units (all were purchased by Wisconsin Central and merged to form English, Welsh & Scottish (EWS) in 1996): **
Mainline Freight Mainline Freight was a trainload rail freight operator based in Islington, London, England with operations extending to Yorkshire in the north and Somerset in the west. It was formed from part of British Rail's Trainload Freight division as par ...
in the south-east **
Loadhaul Loadhaul Ltd. was a railfreight operator based in the north-east of the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1994, as part of the privatisation of British Rail, and acquired in 1996 by a consortium headed by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin Centra ...
in the north-east ** Transrail in the west * Railfreight Distribution was also sold to EWS in 1997 *
Rail Express Systems Rail Express Systems (RES) was a sector of British Rail. This sector was responsible for transport of mail and parcels, including the travelling post office trains, as well as taking over charter operations from InterCity (British Rail), InterC ...
was also sold to EWS in 1996 * Freightliner was privatised with the brand name retained The opening of 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 ...
in 1994 allowed direct goods trains to run between the UK and the continent for the first time. Freight services are also offered by the
Getlink Getlink, formerly Groupe Eurotunnel, is a European public company based in Paris that manages and operates the infrastructure of the Channel Tunnel between France and the United Kingdom, operates the LeShuttle railway service, and earns revenu ...
truck shuttles. Subsequently, EWS's
nuclear flask A nuclear flask is a shipping container that is used to transport Ionizing radiation#Nuclear power, active nuclear materials between nuclear power station and spent fuel reprocessing facilities. Each shipping container is designed to maintain its ...
train operations were sold to the new company
Direct Rail Services Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain, and is one of the publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom. DRS was created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) during late 19 ...
set up by British Nuclear Fuels.
GB Railfreight GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital, itself a subsidiary of M&G plc, a UK investment group. GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 ...
was a new freight company established in 1998 by
GB Railways GB Railways was the parent company of a number of Train operating company, train operating companies, running the Anglia Railways franchise from January 1997 and launching Hull Trains and GB Railfreight. GB Railways was also involved in the mana ...
. It was later owned by
FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Europorte and
EQT AB EQT AB is a Swedish global investment organization founded in 1994. Its funds invest in private equity (EQT Private Capital Europe & North America), infrastructure (EQT Infrastructure), real estate (EQT Real Estate), growth equity, and ventur ...
.
Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...
purchased EWS for £309 million on 13 November 2007. On 1 January 2009, EWS was rebranded as DB Schenker along with Deutsche Bahn's Railion and
DB Schenker Schenker AG (trading as DB Schenker) is a subsidiary of Danish logistics company DSV. The company was previously owned by German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which acquired the subsidiary back in 2002. It comprises divisions for air, land, sea fr ...
divisions. In March 2016, DB Schenker was rebranded as
DB Cargo DB Cargo (; previously known as Railion and DB Schenker Rail) is an international transport and logistics company. It is responsible for all of the rail freight transport activities of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn (the DB Group) bo ...
throughout Europe. Since 1995, the amount of freight carried on the railways has increased sharply due to increased reliability and competition, as well as new international services. Major road haulage operations such as the Stobart Group and WH Malcolm move goods by rail, hauling supplies for
Asda Asda Stores Limited (), trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters is in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded ...
and
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...
.
Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the List of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Sco ...
also uses rail freight, as do
Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...
and many more retailers. A symbolic loss to the rail freight industry in Great Britain was the custom of the
Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...
, which from 2004 discontinued use of its 49-train fleet, switching to road haulage after a near 170-year preference for trains. Mail trains had long been part of the tradition of the railways in Great Britain, famously celebrated in the film ''
Night Mail ''Night Mail'' is a 1936 British documentary film directed and produced by Harry Watt and Basil Wright, and produced by the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit. The 24-minute film documents the nightly postal train operated by the London, ...
'', for which
W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...
wrote the poem of the same name. Although Royal Mail suspended the mail train in January 2004, this decision was reversed in December of the same year, and Class 325s are now used on some routes including between London, Warrington and Scotland. The
Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...
's ''Transport Ten Year Plan'' called for an 80% increase in rail freight measured from a 2000–1 base. By the year 2015 rail-borne intermodal traffic is scheduled to double, and by 2030 the whole of rail freight is expected to double at 50.4 billion tonne km.


Current operations

Goods carried by rail are either intermodal (container) freight or trainload freight which includes coal, metals, oil, and construction materials. There are four main
freight rail Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...
operating companies in the UK:
Direct Rail Services Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain, and is one of the publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom. DRS was created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) during late 19 ...
, Freightliner,
DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway) is a British rail freight company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin ...
(formerly EWS), and
GB Railfreight GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital, itself a subsidiary of M&G plc, a UK investment group. GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 ...
. There are also three smaller independent operators, which are
Colas Rail Colas Rail is a railway infrastructure company, which also serves as a rail freight operator in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Bouygues. Colas Rail was founded as Seco Rail by SECO (Société d'Études et de Construction d'Outillag ...
, DCRail and
Mendip Rail Mendip Rail Ltd is an independent Rail transport in Great Britain#Goods services, freight operating railway company in Great Britain. It is a joint venture composed of the rail-operation divisions of Aggregate Industries (formerly Foster Yeoman) ...
. The
Rail Delivery Group The Rail Delivery Group Limited (RDG), previously the Association of Train Operating Companies, is the British rail industry membership body that brings together passenger and freight rail companies, Network Rail and High Speed 2. The RDG is a ...
set up by the DfT includes representatives of rail freight companies. Statistics on freight are specified in terms of the weight of freight lifted, and the ''net tonne kilometre'', being freight weight multiplied by distance carried. 116.6 million tonnes of freight was lifted in the 2013–4 period, against 138 million tonnes in 1986–7, a decrease of 16%. However, a record 22.7 billion net tonne kilometres (14 billion net ton miles) of freight movement were recorded in 2013–14, against 16.6 billion (10.1 billion) in 1986–7, an increase of 38%. Coal used to make up around 36% of the total ''net tonne kilometre'', though its share is declining. Rail freight has slightly increased its market share since privatisation (by net tonne kilometres) from 7.0% in 1998 to 9.1% in 2011 and around 12% in 2016. Recent growth is partly due to more international services including the Channel Tunnel and
Port of Felixstowe The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's largest container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd busiest container port in the world and 8th in Europe, with a ha ...
, which is containerised. Nevertheless, network bottlenecks and insufficient investment in catering for 9' 6" high shipping containers currently restrict growth.


Intermodal freight

''Liner train'' and ''freightliner'' are UK terms for trains carrying
intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, or a freight container, (or simply "container") is a large metal crate designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode ...
s. The latter name was coined by
Richard Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the ...
in the 1960s, and later became the name of the Freightliner sector of
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...
. This was sold off as a private enterprise, Freightliner, in 1995, as part of the privatisation of BR. ''Freightliner'' or ''liner'' may mean either intermodal services run solely by Freightliner or intermodal services in general. Additionally, ''bin liner'', or ''binliner'', is a slang term for a liner train carrying containers of waste for disposal.


Terminals

Major intermodal freight terminals include:


Sea ports

*
Port of Bristol The Port of Bristol comprises the commercial, and former commercial, docks situated in and near the city of Bristol in England. The Port of Bristol Authority was the commercial title of the Bristol City, Avonmouth, Portishead and Royal Portb ...
*
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 ...
* Port of Grangemouth *
Port of Hull The Port of Hull is a port at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Seaborne trade at the port can be traced to at least the 13th century, originally con ...
*
Immingham Immingham is a town and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England, on the south-west bank of the Humber, Humber Estuary, northwest of Grimsby. It was relatively unpopulated until the early 1900s, when the Great Central Railway began de ...
*
Seaforth Dock Seaforth Dock (also known as the Royal Seaforth Dock) is a purpose-built dock and container terminal, on the River Mersey, England, at Seaforth, to the north of Liverpool. As part of the Port of Liverpool and Liverpool Freeport, it is operate ...
, Liverpool *
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, ...
* Thamesport *
Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...
*
Teesport Teesport is a large sea port located in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, Northern England. Owned by PD Ports, it is located approximately inland from the North Sea and east of Middle ...


Inland terminals

*Birch Coppice near Tamworth, West Midlands * Barking Rail Freight Terminal *
Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 censu ...
Rail Freight Terminal * Birmingham (Lawley Street) Terminal * Coatbridge (Glasgow) Terminal * Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, West Midlands * Doncaster Inland Port * Doncaster International Railport * Dollands Moor, Kent - for freight via 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 ...
*East Midlands Gateway Rail Freight Terminal, Kegworth, Leicestershire. Near East Midlands Airport. * Hams Hall Rail Freight Terminal * Stourton (Leeds) Terminal *Liverpool Freightliner Terminal, Garston, Liverpool * Manchester Trafford Park Terminal * Sheffield International Rail Freight Terminal * Telford International Railfreight Park * Trafford Park Euroterminal * Wakefield Europort *Wembley European Freight Operations Centre * Wentloog (Cardiff) Terminal


Trainload freight

Trainload freight movements include:


Oil and petroleum

* GB Railfreight runs up to two 20 tank trains a week for Petrochem Carless Ltd, transporting gas condensate from
North Walsham North Walsham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. The town is located south of Cromer and Norwich is south. Demography The civil parish has an area of ...
to a refinery in
Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-o ...
. The company also transports up to 3 trains per week of petroleum products from the North East to Inver Terminal at the Queen Alexandra Dock in Cardiff * Colas Rail Freight will provide haulage for
bitumen Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscosity, viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American Engl ...
from the Lindsey Oil Refinery to Total UK's Preston production plant. * DB Cargo UK moves petrochemicals from Grangemouth, Fawley, the Humber, Lindsey and Milford Haven refineries.


Construction materials

* Lafarge uses rail freight in its various cement works. *
GB Railfreight GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital, itself a subsidiary of M&G plc, a UK investment group. GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 ...
hauls raw materials and finished goods including gypsum, aggregates, limestone, iron ore, sleepers, ballast and rails. Its customers for this include Lafarge Tarmac, British Gypsum, Yeoman, Aggregate Industries,
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...
and TfL. *
Mendip Rail Mendip Rail Ltd is an independent Rail transport in Great Britain#Goods services, freight operating railway company in Great Britain. It is a joint venture composed of the rail-operation divisions of Aggregate Industries (formerly Foster Yeoman) ...
operates aggregates trains for its parent companies
Aggregate Industries Aggregate Industries UK Limited, a member of the Holcim Group, is a company based in the United Kingdom with headquarters at Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire. Aggregate Industries manufactures and supplies a range of heavy building materi ...
(due to acquisition of Foster Yeoman) and
Hanson Hanson or Hansson may refer to: People * Hanson (surname) * Hansson (surname) * Hanson (wrestler) or Ivar (born 1984), American professional wrestler Musical groups * Hanson (band), an American pop rock band * Hanson (UK band), an English ...
(due to acquisition of ARC). It holds the record for the longest and heaviest British train.


Food and drink

*
Asda Asda Stores Limited (), trading as Asda and often styled as ASDA, is a British supermarket and petrol station chain. Its headquarters is in Leeds, England. The company was incorporated as Associated Dairies and Farm Stores in 1949. It expanded ...
grocery goods have been moved between distribution centres in
Daventry Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...
,
Grangemouth Grangemouth (; , ) is a town in the Falkirk (council area), Falkirk council area in the central belt of Scotland. Historically part of the Counties of Scotland, county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firt ...
and
Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
using Malcolm Group and
Direct Rail Services Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain, and is one of the publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom. DRS was created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) during late 19 ...
since 2001. *
Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...
products are moved by Stobart Rail (Direct Rail Services) from
Daventry Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...
to
Mossend Mossend is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, located beside the town of Bellshill, west of the villages of Holytown and New Stevenston, north of the larger town of Motherwell and south of the Eurocentral industrial park and the M8 motor ...
and
Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
. The company was responsible for the longest train journey in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
by a single operator when fresh Spanish produce was transported in a refrigerated train from Valencia to Dagenham—a 1,100 mile journey. *Colas Rail imports
melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. It can also specifically refer to ''Cucumis melo'', commonly known as the "true melon" or simply "melon". The term "melon" can apply to both the p ...
s as part of the regular Norfolk Lines train from Italy to the
Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
. *Soft drinks manufacturer
Britvic Britvic was a British producer of soft drinks based in Hemel Hempstead, England. It produced soft drinks under its own name, as well as several other brands. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Carlsberg Group an ...
uses Malcolm Logistics for its rail freight from Daventry to Grangemouth and Mossend.


Nuclear flask trains

* Direct rail Services operates all
nuclear flask A nuclear flask is a shipping container that is used to transport Ionizing radiation#Nuclear power, active nuclear materials between nuclear power station and spent fuel reprocessing facilities. Each shipping container is designed to maintain its ...
trains in Britain which, until the late 1990s, were previously operated by EWS (and British Rail before it). Destinations served include the UK nuclear power stations at
Heysham Heysham ( ) is a coastal village in the Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, overlooking Morecambe Bay. It is a ferry port, with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the site of two nuclear power stations. History Of historic ...
, Valley (for Wylfa), Bridgwater (for Hinkley Point), Berkeley (for Oldbury), Hunterston, Torness, Seaton Carew, Dungeness and Sizewell. * The company formerly operated trains to the railhead at
Southminster Southminster is a town and civil parish on the Dengie Peninsula in the Maldon district of Essex in the East of England. It lies about north of Burnham-on-Crouch and south-east of Maldon; it is approximately east-north-east of London. To the ...
for fuel from Bradwell nuclear power station, however this installation is now in the process of being decommissioned. * There are also occasional trains from Ramsden Dock at
Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...
to the processing plant at
Sellafield Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste storage, nuclear waste processing and storage and nucle ...
, carrying nuclear waste from nuclear power stations in
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
and the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
for treatment. DRS also have a contract to supply the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
's Devonport Dockyard with fuel for Britain's nuclear
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
fleet. These trains only run as required. There is also a train from Hull to
Sellafield Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste storage, nuclear waste processing and storage and nucle ...
which reprocesses
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
n spent fuel. * Low-level nuclear waste is carried by rail in containers from Sellafield to the
Low Level Waste Repository The Low Level Waste Repository is the UK's central long-term store for low-level radioactive waste located on the West Cumbrian coast near Drigg village and opened in 1959. It is a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Funct ...
at Drigg, several miles down the Cumbrian Coast. * There are plans to start running trains between Sellafield and Georgemas Junction in 2012, returning spent fuel from
Dounreay Dounreay (; ) is a small settlement and the site of two large nuclear establishments on the north coast of Caithness Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutena ...
to Sellafield.


Steel

* Tata move
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
products from
Margam Margam is a suburb and community (Wales), community of Port Talbot in the Wales, Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway. The community had a population of 3,017 in 2011; the built up area being l ...
to Llanwern by rail,
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...
- Value and Importance of Rail Freight, July 2010
and from
Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...
to Ebange (France) via the Channel Tunnel. 10 trains run to/from the major Tata plant at Scunthorpe.


Timber

* Colas Rail operates
timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
trains to
Chirk Chirk () is a town and Community (Wales), community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, south of Wrexham, between it and Oswestry. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 4,468. Historically in the historic counties of Wales, traditional coun ...
from
Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...
,
Ribblehead Ribblehead is the area of moorland at the head of the River Ribble in the area known as Ribblesdale, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, England. Ribblehead is most notable for Ribblehead railway station and Ribblehead Viaduct on the S ...
in the
Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...
,
Baglan Bay Baglan Bay () is a part of the Swansea Bay coastline and a district of Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. Baglan Bay is also the name of a local government community. Baglan Bay is served by the M4 Motorway and the A48 road which traverse ...
in
South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...
and Teigngrace in
Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
.


Vehicles

Road vehicles, particularly passenger cars, can be moved by rail using
autorack An autorack, also known as an auto carrier (also Flat wagon#Car transporters, car transporter outside the US), is a specialized piece of railroad rolling stock used to transport automobiles and light trucks. Autoracks are used to transport new ...
s. Ford and
Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...
are two companies who use rail to transport road vehicles. Ford launched its
Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fo ...
Dock to
Halewood Halewood is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England, near the city of Liverpool's southeastern boundary, bordered by the suburbs of Netherley, Hunt's Cross and Woolton. Historically part of Lanca ...
train using Cartic 4 wagons (up to 34 cars on each double deck wagon) on 13 July 1966. It was expected 200,000 Ford vehicles would be carried each year at a rate of 50 to 60 trains a week, plus 10 a week to the docks. 538 sets of Cartic 4 wagons were built between 1966 and 1972 and not finally scrapped until 2013.
Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is the holding company of Jaguar Land Rover, also known as JLR, and is a British multinational automobile manufacturer which produces luxury vehicles and SUVs and has its head office in Whitley, Coventry, Unite ...
and
BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
also use rail to transport vehicles. 90% of all finished vehicle rail movements within the UK are run by DB Cargo UK.


Waste

"Binliner" routes include: *Northolt and Cricklewood to Calvert landfill site *Routes from Greater Manchester to Roxby Gullet landfill site (Freightliner) *Brentford to Appleford in Oxfordshire by DB Cargo UK *Dagenham and Hillingdon to Calvert landfill for West Waste, also a DB Cargo UK service *North London Waste Authority uses Freightliner Heavy Haul to operate a daily service from the transfer station at Hendon to Stewartby *Bristol and Bath Councils have used rail since the 1980s and Freightliner now operate the service completing a daily circuit between the two transfer stations in Bristol and Bath to the landfill site at Calvert in Buckinghamshire *Freightliner Heavy Haul carries Manchester's household waste on daily services from four transfer stations at Northenden, Bredbury, Pendleton and Dean Lane to Runcorn EfW Facility *Edinburgh has used rail since 1989, and the DB Cargo UK service is booked to run Mondays to Saturday from Powderhall waste transfer station to a landfill site at
Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...
, a distance of 27 miles


Coal

Coal transport declined rapidly in the 2020s as Great Britain phased out coal use in power generation. The last coal supply train ran into the last coal power station in Britain,
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Ratcliffe-on-Soar, sometimes written Ratcliffe-upon-Soar or Radcliffe-on-Soar, is a village#United Kingdom, village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Nottinghamshire on the River Soar. Geography It is part of the Rushcliffe distri ...
, on 29 September 2024, shortly before the power station closed. Trains circa 2013 included: *
DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway) is a British rail freight company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin ...
ran coal trains between mining sites in
South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...
, Nottinghamshire,
South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...
and Scotland and
coal-fired power station A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...
s around Britain. These were
merry-go-round train A merry-go-round train, often abbreviated to MGR, is a Unit train, block train of Hopper car, hopper wagons which both loads and unloads its cargo while moving. In the United Kingdom, they are most commonly coal trains delivering to power stat ...
s. *40 coal trains per day ran from
Immingham Immingham is a town and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England, on the south-west bank of the Humber, Humber Estuary, northwest of Grimsby. It was relatively unpopulated until the early 1900s, when the Great Central Railway began de ...
to
coal-fired power station A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ...
s in the Aire Valley ( Drax,
Eggborough Eggborough is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, close to the county borders with South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire, East Riding. The village is situated at the junction of the A19 road, A19 a ...
) and the Trent Valley ( Cottam,
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Ratcliffe-on-Soar, sometimes written Ratcliffe-upon-Soar or Radcliffe-on-Soar, is a village#United Kingdom, village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Nottinghamshire on the River Soar. Geography It is part of the Rushcliffe distri ...
, West Burton). Around 2011, the Humber ports generated 18% of total UK freight by tonnage via the South Humberside Main Line.


References


Further reading

*


External links


Network Rail - FreightMode Shift Centre - How the Rail Freight Industry works

Rail Freight Group
{{British_Rail_Spot_Hire_Companies Rail freight transport in the United Kingdom