Rail freight

The North of England Programme: Northern Hub plus electrification

10.09.14: 2015 is a critical year for the Northern Hub, which has been combined into a single programme with electrification in the north west to ensure co-ordinated, safe, efficient delivery. RTM met Network Rail’s principal sponsor for north west...

Radlett SRFI depot row rolls on

01.09.14: The latest chapter in the long-running planning debate on the potential development of a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) at Radlett has taken a new twist and turn. David Stevenson reports.  In July this year it appeared progres...

Council to challenge government over Radlett SRFI depot

27.08.14: St Albans City and District Council has lodged a claim in the High Court to challenge a decision by communities secretary Eric Pickles to grant planning permission for the development of a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) at Radlett. ...

Radlett approval welcomed by freight industry after long wait

15.07.14: Communities secretary Eric Pickles has given planning permission approval for the development of the Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) at Radlett, near St Albans, Hertfordshire. The decision, which comes almost five years after a pu...

GB Railfreight receives first batch of new Class 66 locos

14.07.14: GB Railfreight has received the first batch of its new Class 66 locomotives from the US, with the next two batches expected in the UK in the next six months. The five locomotives, which represent the first batch of an order of 21 Class 66s...

Rail helps increase UK economic output by £10bn – RDG

09.07.14: Rail services increase the output of the rest of the UK’s economy by as much as £10.2bn a year – equivalent to £386 for every household in Britain – mainly by reducing road congestion and increasing productivity, a...

Energy audits to hit all businesses

01.07.14: The government’s decision to implement energy audits on all non-SMEs before 5 December 2015 will cause a headache for every company relying on road transport – regardless of their size. Nick Radcliffe, MD of FreightArranger, explains...

Delivering the North Doncaster Chord

01.07.14: Adrian Elliott, Alliance manager on the North Doncaster Chord at Network Rail, talked to RTM about delivering the new railway flyover. On 26 June, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin officially cut the ribbon and opened the North Doncaster C...

Rail freight relief as European ministers reject international ‘mega trucks’

06.06.14: The decision by European transport ministers to reject the European Commission’s proposals to allow cross-border ‘mega trucks’ across Europe has been welcomed by the UK’s freight industry. During the review of the lo...

Colas buys 10 Class 60 locos from DB Schenker

06.06.14: Colas Rail has bought 10 class 60 locomotives from DB Schenker Rail UK – expanding its fleet of freights locomotives and infrastructure maintenance machines. The purchase price, however, has not been disclosed. According to a statemen...

First train runs on new North Doncaster Chord

05.06.14: GB Railfreight has become the first operating company to use the newly-constructed £45m North Doncaster Chord, which was recently completed by Network Rail.  Locomotive 66751 was the first loco over the new chord, which is a 3.2k...

Rail freight movement at record high in 2014

23.05.14: Rail freight movement in the UK has peaked this year with more than 22.7 billion net tonne kilometres moved in 2013-14, an increase of some 6% over the previous year, according to data from the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). Having previo...

Rail freight delivering economic benefits to UK – RDG

15.05.14: It is estimated that UK businesses are saving £1bn a year by using rail freight to transport goods, following a significant period of industry investment, a new Rail Delivery Group (RDG) report has revealed.  Based on analysis ca...

GB Railfreight invests in innovative Ecofret wagons

09.05.14: GB Railfreight (GBRf) has secured a five-year lease with VTG Rail UK Ltd for 18 of its new Ecofret triple-platform wagons.  But John Smith, managing director of GBRf, said that the government must do more to support the changing freigh...

Increasing rail freight’s modal share

01.05.14: Philippa Edmunds, manager of Freight on Rail, explains the growth of rail freight in the UK and how this can be further boosted. Rail freight is vital to the UK economy. As the transport minister Baroness Kramer said: “The rail freight...