Stourton Freightliner Terminal (Stourton FLT), is a railfreight intermodal transport hub located in

Stourton, Leeds Stourton is a mainly industrial area of the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area falls within the City and Hunslet ward of Leeds Metropolitan Council. Location The area is to the south-east of Leeds city centre, between Hunslet, t ...

, England. It is operated by the

Freightliner Group Freightliner Group is a rail freight and logistics company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is presently a wholly owned subsidiary of the American holding company Genesee & Wyoming. It was originally created after the Transport Act 1968 ...

, and has services arriving and departing for ports in

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northeast of London. H ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...

and

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 16th century fort and an anc ...

in the south of England. Stourton serves as a dedicated collection and delivery point for containers across Yorkshire, with a minor sub-service to Teesport in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

by rail. The site was opened in July 1967 by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

as part of its dedicated Freightliner brand. Between the closure of many intermodal terminals in the 1980s, and the prospect of a resurgence in

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone ( Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles (Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dove ...

traffic, Stourton was the only intermodal terminal in Yorkshire between 1987 and 1994.

History

When the Freightliner brand was introduced by

(BR) in the 1960s, three of the initial 17 terminals would be in the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

region (

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

). The site was built on the former Stourton sidings, which were earmarked for investment as a marshalling yard under the 1955 modernisation plan, though this never came to fruition. After the mass closure of Freightliner terminals across the UK in 1986 and 1987, Leeds Stourton remained the only Yorkshire based terminal. Stourton is also one of only five of the original 1960s batch of terminals still in operation (the others being Garston in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

, Lawley Street in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, Southampton Millbrook and Trafford Park in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

). Opened in July 1967, the site is located on the former Stourton steam shed, and at its opening covered over . Under British Rail in 1994, the prospect of

traffic, led to BR developing a new intermodal terminal at Wakefield Europort, which in the post-privatisation era has been operated by Freightliner Group competitor

DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS)), is a British rail freight company headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established in early 1995 as ''North & South Railways'', successful ...

. During this period, the terminal at Stourton was handling an average of 65,000 containers every year. Originally, British Rail wanted to develop Stourton into a single terminal for both deep-sea, domestic and Channel Tunnel traffic, so the site would be similar to that at Trafford Park in Manchester, where the two intermodal terminals are quite close. However, the upgrade at Stourton wasn't eligible for a European Economic Community grant, but the Wakefield site was. Throughout the 1990s and the 2000s, the typical destinations served by Leeds Stourton have been the ports at

and

, with feeder services to Crewe Basford Hall and Wilton, or Teesport terminals on

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

. After the opening of

London Gateway DP World London Gateway is a port within the wider Port of London, United Kingdom. Opened in November 2013, the site is a fully integrated logistics facility, comprising a semi-automated deep-sea container terminal on the same site as the UK ...

in 2014, Stourton has been one of the new services from that location. During the late 1980s, a feeder service operated between the Port of Immingham and Stourton.

Future

In 2018, the typically number of train movements to and from Stourton was 14. The projected traffic growth in intermodal containers is estimated to increase to 47 trains per day by 2043.

Access and layout

The terminal can only be operated by diesel trains as no electric wires (catenary) exist on this stretch of line. The section south has been mooted in the railway press as an 'infill' electrification project; from Stourton terminal to Hare Park Junction (on the Doncaster to Wakefield Line), is . The electrification of the line between Whitehall Junction (Leeds) and Hare Park Junction (on the Leeds to Doncaster line), appeared as a desired future project in Network Rail's ''Freight Network Study'' of 2017. Aside from the arrival siding, the main part of the terminal consists of three through lines with gantry cranes straddling all three. The site covers , and has the capacity to store 1,150 standard containers (rated as TEU). Stourton is located on Valley Farm Way in Stourton, a suburb of south Leeds, with road access to the

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

, the M621 motorway and the

A639 road List of A roads in zone 6 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island an ...

Notes

References

Sources

* *

External links

Official website
{{Intermodal railfreight terminals in the Great Britain Railway freight terminals in the United Kingdom Rail transport in West Yorkshire Railway depots in Yorkshire Transport infrastructure completed in 1967 Buildings and structures in Leeds