British ports are building intermodal capacity, and that is helping to drive growth for rail freight operations. Recent concerns expressed in mainland Europe are not being echoed in the UK, where maritime intermodal traffic is already the biggest single commodity carried by British rail freight.
Intermodal traffic vies with aggregates for the lead position in rail freight’s important “tonne-kilometre” metric. Now, a list of recent new flows, and intermodal growth targets, could point to many more boxes on the rails in future.
Challenging economic climate in Europe
Intermodal freight lifted from British ports stood at just over 1.6 million net tonne kilometres at the last count (December 2024). Since then, it’s been steadily increasing, and next month’s figures from the official Office of Rail and Road should show a further increase. Only established aggregate flows, from British quarries in the north and west to the booming construction sites around London and the South East, match that performance.
A recent report, carried by our sister publication RailFreight.com, pointed to a challenging economic climate for intermodal traffic on Europe’s railways. A weakening in freight demand overall, has led to a decline in road haulage rates, combined with greater available capacity. This in turn is impacting the viability of existing intermodal services and stifling development in the sector.
Growth targets from UK Government
The challenges in the UK are somewhat different. Conversely, they could lead to significant growth for rail freight. The UK Government policy is geared towards growth with an environmental agenda. Rail freight has been mandated to meet a 75% growth target by 2050. To help achieve that, a number of infrastructure projects have been tabled or are already underway. A multi-billion pound project called the Transpennine Route Upgrade will enhance capacity in the north of England. That will benefit a new flow, inaugurated last week by carrier Direct Rail Services, moving boxes five days a week between Teesport (on the east coast) and Manchester.
Manchester and Liverpool may both benefit from a new intermodal facility midway between both cities, at Newton-le-Willows. The commercial development, nominated Intermodal Logistics Park North, is a commercial venture by London-based Tritax, a developer with an extensive portfolio in logistics and warehousing. ILP North is proposed for a site at the intersection of the Transpennine Route and the West Coast Main Line, Europe’s busiest mixed-traffic railway.
New capacity and financial incentives
Elsewhere, developments are aligning in favour of intermodal rail freight. At Grangemouth in Scotland, facilities were recently extended to cope with longer trains. A long-term project is underway nearby, at Mossend, to establish a new purpose-built intermodal terminal.
At the other end of Britain, at Southampton, container port operators DP World have taken an initiative all of their own. The operators have, for some time, made an incentive payment to shippers, if they move their inbound containers onwards by rail. This has encouraged modal shift to rail, which DP World is confident of increasing (as reported in the forthcoming edition of WorldCargo News magazine).
While several capacity issues remain on the British network, the rail freight sector is challenging the dominance of road transport. Boxes on British tracks are only likely to increase in number, and contribute significantly to that Government mandated growth target.