GB Railfreight are pleased to announce that on Monday 5th November 2018, it saw the commencement of a new service out of London Gateway into Rotherham, marking the continued expansion of routes covered by GB Railfreight across the country.

The Class 66 locomotive no. 66714 departed from London Gateway at 04.45 on 5th November, arriving at Rotherham at 12:10 on the same day. The export then departed Rotherham at 15.40, with the export load up marking its first commercial service, heading back to London Gateway, arriving at 01:18 the following day.

Made up of 37 platforms, the new service will run 5 times per week on a round trip basis.

John Smith, Managing Director of GB Railfreight, said:

“We are thrilled the be expanding the routes covered by GB Railfreight to include this new service from Rotherham to London Gateway. Many thanks to our partners the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Newell & Wright (NWT) for helping to make this a possibility.”

Paul Barker, Commercial Director of NWT, said:

“We are delighted to receive this new 5-day service provided by GBRf from London Gateway into our Terminal in Rotherham.

The service is contracted from GBRf between MSC and Newell & Wright, further extending our rail services into Rotherham and providing our existing customer base with a multi-port option for moving containers into the Yorkshire area with onward delivery and other related services.”

Paul Garnham, Head of Intermodal & Head of Logistics at MSC, said:

“MSC in conjunction with GBRf are delighted to be able to offer a new daily rail service from London Gateway to NWT Rotherham. The service commenced operation on Monday 5th November and will run five days a week, Monday through Friday.

MSC has a long-standing relationship with GBRf going back to 2002 when we commenced our very first contract trains into West Yorkshire and the Midlands and we are excited to introduce this new rail service into our rail and road offering that complements our extensive and market leading UK landside coverage.”

Hanson has invested £250,000 in restoring the railway siding at its plant in Ashton-in-Makerfield. It is the first time rail freight has been run into the depot for some 10 years, and will see hundreds of lorry journeys taken off the roads each year.

Working in partnership with GB Railfreight, Hanson will run three trains a week from its quarry in Shap, Cumbria down to its site in Ashton. It is expected that over 200,000 tonnes of material will be taken by rail each year along this new route, which saw its first service run on 15th October.

Hanson UK’s regional general manager for the north Simon Day said: “The investment in the site is an important part of our rail strategy. We are working to try to increase the tonnage of aggregates we transport this way across the UK. These three trains a week will take around 1,500 truck journeys off the road each year and mean that we only need to put the material onto road transport for the last 5 – 10 miles rather than the 60 – 80 miles we do now. This will reduce the distances travelled on the road by our truck fleet by around 500,000 miles per year.”

GB Railfreight’s Managing Director John Smith said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Hanson on this new service, which will be using one of GB Railfreight’s recently purchased class 60 locomotives.This partnership is further demonstration of the role freight can play in taking trucks off the road and reducing emissions.”

The material will be used by the company’s asphalt and concrete plants as well as supplying the construction market in the north west of England.

As well as refurbishing the rail track serving the site, money is being spent on upgrading the depot including the installation of a new weighbridge and office facilities.

About Hanson UK
Hanson is the UK’s leading supplier of heavy building materials to the construction industry, employing 3,500 people and producing aggregates (crushed rock, sand and gravel), ready-mixed concrete, asphalt, cement and cement-related materials. Hanson is part of the HeidelbergCement Group, one of the largest building materials manufacturers in the world.

www.hanson.co.uk

For further information please contact:
Phil Pitt, Hanson communications and marketing
01628 774113
phil.pitt@hanson.com

GB Railfreight welcomes the government’s announcement of a new rail review yesterday (Thursday 20th September), aimed at considering all parts of the UK’s rail network. This must include, however, the rail freight sector, which plays a pivotal role in the delivery of goods, commodities and building materials around the country.

The turmoil created by the recent timetabling issues experienced by passenger services has also negatively impacted freight services. Open access freight companies have not been issued with a December timetable, meaning Network Rail will be improvising essentially. Additionally, there wasn’t appropriate consultation with rail freight operators before the cancellation of timetables, which has placed a burden on the sector.

GB Railfreight is proud of the role that it plays in increasing the productivity of UK plc, from reducing congestion and lowering air pollution by removing lorries from the roads to supplying companies up and down the country with the materials needed to build houses, lay roads and dig tunnels. Any review into the railways must ensure that this part of the sector is allowed to continue to flourish as it has done since privitisation.

Commenting on the review, John Smith, GB Railfreight’s managing director, said:

“Given the role we play, shifting goods worth billions of pounds per year and helping the UK become more productive and sustainable, rail freight expects to play a central role in the discussions around the railways’ future. If we do not, the government and Network Rail risk undermining all the fantastic work we have done since the mid-90s to create a thriving business.

“More than that, we see this as a vital opportunity to ensure the regulatory landscape is most beneficial to rail freight, putting it on a secure footing to grow new routes, open up new markets, and develop new freight terminals. GB Railfreight will be at the forefront of these conversations, leading the way for the industry, and making sure rail is given its due consideration as a freight transportation option now and well into the future.”

GB Railfreight (GBRf) is today pleased to announce that it has agreed a sale and long-term leaseback of 10 class 60 locomotives with Beacon Rail, marking the latest expansion of its locomotive fleet. The move continues to underline what an exciting period of growth this is for GBRf, as the company continues to move further into the commodities market, including biomass and aggregate industries.

The new locomotives will enable both higher trailing weights on certain routes, as well as offering greater efficiency. In particular, the increase in the number of locomotives means that there can be further growth on existing contracts, including GBRf’s ‘Flying Dustman’ service in partnership with Biffa. This started back in March, and sees muck taken away from sites in major industrial centres Manchester and Leeds.

John Smith, Managing Director of GBRf, said of the transaction:

“GB Railfreight is thrilled to be in the position to expand our fleet of locos in this way. The move is demonstrative of why GBRf is the UK’s fastest growing rail freight company, and this rate of development will only continue. Many thanks to the team at Beacon Rail for helping to make this expansion a reality.”

Trevor Butler, Senior Director of Lease Originations at Beacon Rail said:

“Beacon Rail is excited to agree this important transaction with our long-standing and valued customer GB Railfreight and to be part of GBRf’s continuing growth.”