26.06.15
New £18m railhead approved for West Midlands freight company
A new £18m railhead has been given the go-ahead connecting a freight firm to the Chase Line in the West Midlands.
Freight company Pentalver are to create a new road-rail interchange facility. The project includes new railway sidings, acoustic fencing and two rail-mounted gantry cranes.
The company is based north of Birmingham, between Landywood and Cannock stations, on a site where there was a previous railhead that fell into disuse.
The project will create 50 jobs and is designed to significantly decrease the number of HGVs using the road network. Approval for the plan came from Cannock Chase Council.
Pentalver managing director Chris Lawrenson told the Express & Star newspaper that if the rail plan had not been approved, he would have been forced to move the business elsewhere.
He said: “We’ve got to keep pace. There is a mega trend for switching from road to rail. This decision is right for Cannock and for the retail industry.
“Although there will not be a fall in the number of movements in and out of the site, this will cut down on 16 million road miles, particularly along the A5 and the M6.”
The company plans to run up to six trains a day directly to and from south coast ports, cutting down on ‘empty’ trips to rail depots to pick up containers.
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