Network Rail have closed a tunnel under Southampton to lower the track, this is to enable containers to be moved out of the port by rail. The work is due for completion on 10th January.
50,000 boxes per year is a lot of boxes, that means there will be around 960 boxes per week coming out by rail. Or, 960 trucks less per week coming out of the port. Just wondering if anyone working out of Southampton will be out of a job? Nothing has has been said about jobs, but plenty has been said about the transfer to rail.
The MD of the container port said “We expect to see significantly more containers move by rail with the all important benefit being to the environment as there will be fewer lorries on the roads.”
DonutUK:
But 960 containers a year that will need to be moved from railheads to final destinations…
Out of interest, which rail company is going to be moving these containers?
That’s assuming that they can find 960 drivers who want to haul them from collection point to the railheads and to final destination.I would’nt be one of them.
Thats gonna be a awful lot more trains, we dont run long trains like the Yanks do as nowhere is built to accomodate them so they’re going to try and get more trains onto an already full rail system
To be honest it probably isn’t going to be a great deal of difference, It says they’ll be able to move upto another 50,000 containers. Not they will be moving them.
To be honest it could be a bit of spin really to say look at what were spending money on to get all those trucks off the road, but infact it has more to do with being able to move the higher containers on normal wagons instead of the low one which reduce the capacity of the trains. I’ve done a bit of reading round the internet on the subject.
Also 50,000 containers from what I gather is only about 2.5% of total container traffic that goes through Southampton docks and 25% of the traffic is already moved by train, but they are concerned about losing that share with the increase in the use of larger boxes.
DonutUK:
Just curious as to how they are going to handle these extra trains, given that most of the rail network is near enough at capacity?
I wouldn’t be so sure that the rail network is near enough at capacity. Its true that lots of stations have given up their freight capabilities but the general network is still relativley unchanged. Many new “multi modal” depots have opened up to replace the train recieving capacity but in a different way of recieving the freight. Almost all the stations in Liverpool for example once did recieve freight everyday which was taken by lorries for delivery. Anyway, not to get bogged down with all our yesterdays Sometimes we take boxes because there is not enough boxes to go on a train and its not viable to send it with so few on, and obviously not many returning. The rail line into Pentalvers at Cannock still has not been finished, and looks to be on hold now, i’d assume because of a drop off in volumes. And the O’Connors/Stobarts ‘multi modal’ depot at Widnes has seen a huge downturn in traffic. The trains that used to run into Seaforth dock stopped about 12 months ago or more.There is a rail head at Kirkby industrial Estatate that last brought water in from France about 2 or 3 years ago and is not used now. Could go on for ages, but theres certainley more room for freight on trains if anyone wants to.
DonutUK:
Just curious as to how they are going to handle these extra trains, given that most of the rail network is near enough at capacity?
I wouldn’t be so sure that the rail network is near enough at capacity. Its true that lots of stations have given up their freight capabilities but the general network is still relativley unchanged. Many new “multi modal” depots have opened up to replace the train recieving capacity but in a different way of recieving the freight. Almost all the stations in Liverpool for example once did recieve freight everyday which was taken by lorries for delivery. Anyway, not to get bogged down with all our yesterdays Sometimes we take boxes because there is not enough boxes to go on a train and its not viable to send it with so few on, and obviously not many returning. The rail line into Pentalvers at Cannock still has not been finished, and looks to be on hold now, i’d assume because of a drop off in volumes. And the O’Connors/Stobarts ‘multi modal’ depot at Widnes has seen a huge downturn in traffic. The trains that used to run into Seaforth dock stopped about 12 months ago or more.There is a rail head at Kirkby industrial Estatate that last brought water in from France about 2 or 3 years ago and is not used now. Could go on for ages, but theres certainley more room for freight on trains if anyone wants to.
There may be room for handling depots, but do the actual paths for the trains exist?
By this i mean is there the capacity to more freight trains onto the routes? Most of the main line infrastructure is running very close to capacity in terms of the number of trains that can be run.
DonutUK:
There may be room for handling depots, but do the actual paths for the trains exist?
By this i mean is there the capacity to more freight trains onto the routes? Most of the main line infrastructure is running very close to capacity in terms of the number of trains that can be run.
OK, i’ll say it in plainer terms We’re using less trains on the existing network than we ever did , so yes there is plenty of room on the tracks. The main line infrastructure is not running close to capacity.
As far as I understand there has been an increase in both passenger and freight traffic on the rail system. I’ve also heard that this is leading to the network being close to capacity. Although it’s not due to every mile of track being full more to do with bottle necks in the system caused by certain viaducts and tunnels which are not wide enough to put another line beside the existing track, or sections going into towns and cities where all the land beside the track has been developed.
Mind you the same could probably be said for the road network.
DonutUK:
There may be room for handling depots, but do the actual paths for the trains exist?
By this i mean is there the capacity to more freight trains onto the routes? Most of the main line infrastructure is running very close to capacity in terms of the number of trains that can be run.
OK, i’ll say it in plainer terms We’re using less trains on the existing network than we ever did , so yes there is plenty of room on the tracks. The main line infrastructure is not running close to capacity.
I’d like to know where you get that information from?
Having worked on the railway for the last 9 yrs i can certainly say that there are now more passenger trains running than 5 yrs ago…passenger journeys have climbed steadily year upon year, which has meant operators have introduced new services and expanded existing ones. They have also increased service frequency in certain areas.
Having driven trains for 7 of those 9 years, i have also experienced the congestion first hand…both around London/East Anglia and in the Midlands/South West. God forbid a train gets delayed and miss its booked path…it will never recover the time because there isn’t sufficient capacity for it to do so, maybe apart from some local routes but even then it is not guaranteed.
Even the current freight trains, running in their booked slots, end up delaying other services because of the tightness of scheduling in most areas.
I don’t say this as a casual observer of the railway, i say this as someone who has driven on the rail network, then spent nearly 3 yrs in management, of which part of my job was the investigation and attribution of delays to our services!
The only real option would be to run the trains almost exclusively through the night…something which Network Rail have always been reluctant to allow wholesale because of the impact it will have on the maintenance regimes.
Don’t forget, we are trying to run a 21st century railway on largely 19/20th century infrastructure…
DonutUK:
But 960 containers a year that will need to be moved from railheads to final destinations…
Out of interest, which rail company is going to be moving these containers?
All it means is that the existing rail operators with paths into the port, i.e Freightliner and DB Schenker, can carry 9’6" boxes on standard wagons instead of pocket wagons. If your high cube box is going anywhere south of Birmingham (and to some destinations beyond) then it probably shuold be going by road. If the box is demanded for delivery almost as soon as it’s landed, then it will be going by road too!
;).
