UK: DB Cargo UK is trialling the use of ‘combi-consists’ combining two trains to improve efficiency.
A ‘jumbo’ train operated from Belmont Yard in Doncaster to Barking in east London comprised 21 MBA wagons for Ward Recycling and 18 JNA wagons for FCC Environment, with an isolated dead-in-train locomotive in the middle.
The MBA wagons had previously been discharged at Immingham in North Lincolnshire and the JNA wagons discharged at FCC Environment’s waste transfer facility at Tinsley in South Yorkshire.
Both sets of wagons were then taken to DB Cargo UK’s Belmont Yard in Doncaster where the jumbo train was assembled. The train travelled from Belmont Yard to Barking via the GE/GN Joint Line, East Coast Main Line, Hertford loop and Canonbury Tunnel.
‘Combining two customers’ services into one train allowed us to reduce the required number of traincrew, freeing up resources to use on other services’, said Chief Sales Officer Roger Neary. ’It also enabled us to significantly reduce our fuel consumption, making the train not only leaner, but greener too.
‘We had to obtain special permission to run the service with a locomotive in the middle dead-in-train but this reduced the need for complicated shunting at both ends of the journey. It enabled us to hook FCC Environment’s wagons on to the back of Ward’s wagons without having to remove the locomotive and run it round. It’s much more efficient in terms of yard management.’
DB now intends to expand the trial to include further sections of the East Coast Main Line as well as the Midland Main Line.
