Double-track target

“When I retire, or die, the Felixstowe branch must be two tracks or I will be mortified,” said Smith as he discussed the intermodal market on July 5.

Reiterating his desire for investment, he said capacity for the sector was constrained, and highlighted how various reports continually suggest that intermodal will be the top freight commodity with coal dropping to zero. He said that the politics need to reflect this.

“When we started, Felixstowe had 13 trains per day in 2002, now it is 33. There was capacity to exploit back then.” The 33rd train started running on July 11, to Rotherham, but finding that additional path had been “like pulling teeth”, Smith said.

He explained that GBRf’s model was one train, one locomotive operating on a cycle, and it keeps going. “God can have impact through the wind closing the port,” he said, but the business keeps going.

He highlighted market forces, stating that shipping a container from Asia to Felixstowe was cheaper than moving one from the Suffolk port to Manchester. “The volume goes on the docks, and that is when the shippers need to move them,” he said. “It took us 15 years to get eight trains serving the port. That is too slow,” he said.