Worth echoes this analysis, and sees potential being developed by the number of new terminals within or close to the Golden Triangle. These new terminals widening the opportunities for intermodal services include: Maritime at Tamworth Railport; DIRFT3 (9-10 million sq ft of rail-connected warehousing); East Midlands Airport (6-7 million sq ft); Etwall, south of Derby (6-7 million sq ft); and Four Ashes near Wolverhampton (6-7 million sq ft). Further north, the link to Liverpool 2 in-river post-Panamax container terminal will open soon, and iport on the site of Rossington Colliery (near Doncaster) is already operational. To the south a new terminal at St Albans has been approved.
The AECOM report suggests that disused rail-connected power stations (such as Didcot, Rugeley and Ferrybridge) and MoD sites (such as Bicester) would be ideally suited to new SRFIs, and that this use should be given precedence over housing schemes.
Currently, some 60,000 containers of ‘ambient’ retail goods are moved annually by train into central Scotland from rail-connected NDCs in the West Midlands. And rail penetrates the country even further, with daily trains for Asda and Tesco to Aberdeen and Inverness.
Another omission from the Strategy is the need for ways to aggregate domestic intermodal. Tesco’s northbound supply chain from DIRFT is big enough to fill a train, but others may need partial trainloads combining to achieve a viable volume.
At the heart of new services is the conundrum of risk. As Simpson says: “Supermarkets don’t have to take a risk on road, so why should they on rail? New services that work well are those brokered by W. H. Malcolm or Russell Logistics - they have a good understanding of the various volumes and how they can be best served by rail.”
The same applies to deep sea. As Smith points out: “Intermodal doesn’t work unless we can fill a train to 75% capacity. Who takes the risk? If a shipper buys half the train, we can take a risk on the other half.
“Only 22% of boxes out of deep-sea ports go by rail. Double the Felixstowe branch and we could probably get another five to ten trains, taking up to 125,000 lorry journeys off the road a year. Triple E ships swamp the docks, and we can move containers off them quickly.”
Aggregates
Aggregates is another sector where new terminals are opening in response to demand - a 15% growth is predicted for 2017, and large numbers of new cement and aggregate wagons have been built.
Rail has already experienced a 100% increase in aggregates traffic between 2003 and 2015, from 15 million tonnes to almost 30 million. Says Worth: “25% of all aggregates in the South East are moved by rail. The concentration on fewer, larger quarries and cement works should benefit rail. The impetus is coming from the customer.”
The recent ten-year deal between DB Cargo and Day Group covers various new movements such as incinerator bottom ash from the energy-to-waste plant at Newhaven to Brentford, where the material is processed into aggregates for use in construction. The train delivering the ash is then reloaded with recycled aggregates for distribution from Newhaven, providing an unusual two-way rail movement of bulk products.
“The flexibility of DB Cargo to meet the changing requirements of the south-east construction market was key to the renewal of our contract,” says Day Group Operations Director Nick Sadler.
Modest-sized ‘pop-up’ depots can also be created in weeks rather than months - such as that established by DB Cargo and CEMEX at Warrington, which can handle up to 125,000 tonnes a year. Three despatch points (Dove Holes and Shap quarries, and Cardiff) feed 14 receiving depots. Given the predominantly urban nature of demand for aggregates, the benefit of rail in minimising lorry miles and air pollution in cities is particularly significant, especially since the November 2016 defeat of the Government in the High Court over its inadequate actions to reduce London’s pollution.
Overlooked in the Strategy is a trend to extract greater efficiencies at aggregate terminals by sharing facilities. Says Simpson: “At King’s Cross a single bottom-discharge facility has been built with three sets of hoppers for Tarmac, CEMEX and Hanson. One company’s crushed rock of the same grade is much like another, so rail freight operators may be able to help broker efficiencies that don’t run counter to competition concerns.”
Constraints on growth
The DfT Strategy summarised by commodity the constraints on growth. Several reflect the lead times for putting in place the terminal facility, handling equipment and appropriate wagons for new traffics. This is especially true for construction materials, which by definition have volatile volumes and destinations.
Of the various commodities covered by the Strategy, the surprise is the very low growth projected for automotive. The industry recognises the superiority of rail, not least for the significantly reduced incidence of damage to cars - hence the relatively short flow of finished cars for BMW from Oxford to Southampton. Moreover, the Etwall terminal near Derby could include a dedicated bridge into the Toyota factory. Again, aggregation of less-than-trainload flows may help, and Simpson is encouraging discussions through an automotive group.
Capacity issues have been exacerbated by the increase in passenger numbers and services. However, although welcome, this increase has reduced the windows for freight during peak times, and increased the need for dynamic freight loops to minimise the obvious penalty in driver utilisation and therefore cost when dwell times lengthen.
The most severe current constraints are the gauging and pathing restrictions impeding the expansion of deep-sea container traffic from ports, particularly Felixstowe. The gauge clearance of the line to the port of Southampton produced an increase in rail’s share of container movements from 29% to 36% in a year, but the port still needs the ability to be served by 775-metre trains.
It’s not just paths that constrain growth. In the Highlands, short passing loops and a paucity of double-track limit the flagship Tesco/Stobart daily intermodal train to just 20 containers. With more double-track and longer loops, the same locomotive could haul 28 containers - a 40% increase in rail productivity.
Alternative and diversionary routes for rail freight need to be planned for time-sensitive freight traffic. These are needed to cope not only with engineering works and unexpected disruption, but also with new pathing constraints introduced by passenger franchises with higher passenger frequencies.
