UK: Direct Rail Services and PD Ports have launched a trial rail freight service between Teesport and Manchester Trafford Park using ultra-low IDA wagons which can transport 9 ft 6 in high cube containers across the Pennines without requiring gauge enhancement works.
On February 5 Jo Edmenson, PD Ports’ key account manager for rail freight, said ’trans-Pennine connections for operators looking to move goods across the country have been confined to road freight for many years due to the constraints of the rail network, with height restrictions at stations, bridges and tunnels causing a number of issues.
’There is much anticipation about the Transpennine Route Upgrade, which will hopefully remove many of those blockages, but with a completion date of 2030, we felt that was too long to wait.’
The trains run five days a week and are open to any user.
Gottfried Eymer, DRS’s Managing Director for Rail, said the service ‘offers a new route to customers who may not have considered rail before’, adding ’we’d welcome anyone considering a switch to rail to get in touch’.
- Tees Valley Combined Authority has awarded Network Rail a £652 311 contract to provide designs, ES4 surveys and project management for the Northallerton to Eaglescliffe W12 Gauge Clearance project.
