The multinational timber processing company West Fraser would like a rail freight terminal at its Highland mill. The company has begun the planning application process. If it is successful it would see raw timber trains arriving at a production plant near Inverness. Finished product trains would depart, potentially heading for customers all over Europe.
They are better known by the product name, Norboard. Now, the company behind the hi-tech timber sheeting materials wants to build its own freight terminal adjacent to the Aberdeen to Inverness main line. The terminal would be to the west of the recently opened Inverness Airport / Dalcross passenger station, and about five miles (eight kilometres) from Inverness.
Similar to another terminal development
West Fraser has lodged documents with The Highland Council, the local authority in the area. This is a preliminary stage, prior to a full planning application. The company says it wants to construct a rail sidings yard with two sidings, and a connection to the main line. The yard will be served by a gantry crane, areas of hard standing, and a new access road, along with some other associated infrastructure works and facilities.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The pattern of the proposal is very similar to the yard built for Highland Spring at Blackford, 130 miles (208km) to the south. That company’s bottling plant is served by a similar layout. Blackford has two main sidings running parallel to the mainline, with a gantry crane over the tracks.
Road traffic would be relieved
According to West Fraser, the proposed development could remove the need for around 20,000 HGV (heavy goods vehicle) journeys per year. They also say it would support West Fraser’s planned expansion of their business in Scotland. Reading between the lines, that seems like code for “if you let us build it, there will be more jobs in the locale.
In the planning proposal, the company says the preferred design option is for two sidings, approximately 560 metres long, with a connection to the main line to the west of the sidings. The connection, a stub of a siding and a headshunt are already in place.
Trunk movement of tree trunks
The concept of serving the production facility by rail has already been proven. A collaborative effort in 2021 delivered raw timber from Georgemas Junction in the Far North of Scotland to a nearby freight facility at Inverness. That exercise proved the viability of the trunk movement of tree trunks by ral, and made the case for the establishment of rail freight facilitieon-sitete at the mill itself.
The noted avoidance of additional road traffic may well sit comfortably with the local authority’s planners. The two trunk routes that serve the plant—the A9 southwards and the A96 eastwards—both have issues with capacity and safety. Somewhat ironically, for a wood processing company, their proposal states that to accommodate the development, a forested area of approximately 16,000 square metres will require clearing.