West Drayton expects rise in tonnage Further rail growth expected at Teesport
PD Ports predicts 50% rise in services over the next decade.
HANSON anticipates that its new aggregates rail depot at West Drayton will handle around 250,000 tonnes of material annually, rising to around 400,000 within the next three years.
The recently-opened depot will supply key infrastructure projects and customers in West London. It is the second such site to be established by the company this year, Tuebrook, near Liverpool having received its first delivery in March.
RAIL traffic using Teesport is forecast to grow by 50% in the next 10 years.
The facility’s owner PD Ports predicts the rise, based on what its chief commercial officer Geoff Lippitt describes as a “rapid increase” already being witnessed in customers choosing rail as their preferred method for cargo transportation.
The port’s intermodal rail terminal sees at least 25 services each week. PD Ports says that, between them, these trains remove 400,000 movements each year from the roads.
Rail has been an important factor in helping PD Ports reestablish firm foundations after losing a third of its customer base with the closure of Redcar steelworks in 2015.
By diversifying into alternative markets such as animal feed and construction materials, the company has made up for the impact on value and volume of goods lost from the steel industry.
Teesport works with all four major rail freight operators and one of its GB Railfreight services was extended earlier this year to collect whisky for export from Elderslie in Scotland and return empty containers, again reducing road mileage and CO2.
Developing Success
PD Ports says it aims to establish the River Tees as the UK’s most successful port region by 2050. Development of the £185m Northern Gateway Container Terminal will allow it to triple container handling capacity at Teesport.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Lippitt said: “If the UK is going to deliver the major infrastructure projects needed to modernise and rebalance our economy, then we need to move the raw materials to do those things – and rail offers by far the most efficient and greenest way of doing that.”
However, he added that Government support in delivering rail improvements, including the Transpennine route upgrade, was of critical importance: “There is an incredible amount of potential for rail freight in the coming years, with a wall of freight that would happily move off the roads and onto rail if the capacity can be made available. The public and private sectors need to work hand in hand to make that a reality.”