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 owned by Brookfield Corporation, Brookfield, a Canadian investment management company and GIC (sovereign wealth fund), GIC, a Singaporean sove ...

, and has services arriving and departing for ports in

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 ...

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, ...

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 Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...

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 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 ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

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 rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

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 (), 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 ...

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 ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

region (

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

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 ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

). 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 port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, Lawley Street in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, Southampton Millbrook and Trafford Park in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

). 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 Wakefield Europort is a rail-connected warehousing and industrial estate located to the northeast of Wakefield at junction 31 of the M62 motorway in West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1996 in anticipation of increased international railfreigh ...

, 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) is a British rail freight company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin ...

. 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 The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

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 an urban area around the River Tees in North East England. Straddling the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire, it spans the boroughs of Borough of Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough, Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, Stockton ...

. After the opening of

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 ...

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 The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the largest p ...

and Stourton.

Future

In 2018, the typical 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) 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 ...

, the

M621 motorway The M621 is a loop of motorway in West Yorkshire, England that takes traffic into central Leeds between the M1 motorway, M1 and M62 motorway, M62 motorways. History The first section of the M621 to open, known at the time as the 'South West Ur ...

and the A639 road.

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