i was working up north yesterday heard about this on radio
good news if you have every been stuck in a jam behind one like me many times in my car 
( dont want to start another 40 mph speed limit row)
not so good if you are in tesco livingston on agency as 13000 is a lot of 3.5 to 4 hr runs 
Expect convoy after convoy from Livingston to Grangemouth then… Wont be 40mph anymore just 50mph…
Cant see how that can be cost effective, or are there more stores in the Highlands that we dont know about.
We will see how long it lasts…probably till the grant money runs out
Deliveries will then be made to stores in Inverness, Aviemore, Wick, Dingwall, Elgin, Thurso, Ullapool and Forres.
So all these Tesco stores come with railway lines running through them then? let me think how will they get to the stores 
bedgar047:
Cant see how that can be cost effective, or are there more stores in the Highlands that we dont know about.
We will see how long it lasts…probably till the grant money runs out
I dont know how much it costs to run a train but obviously a train can hold/carry more so maybe 1 train load going up once can keep 10 trucks off the road delivering the same amount? Im sure steady Eddie sat down and worked this out before hes gone ahead with it…
They will prob open up a mini RDC in INverness if they haven’t already got one up there? EIther use there subbies to distribute it or transfer drivers up north if they wish?
Im also guessing this will kick up a stink with the Tesco driver unions considering they gret and kicked up a stink cause they had to move across the road (M8) to new RDC…
Only ambient goods are coming up by train at the moment.Frozen,chilled and produce still go by road,so you will still get the queues.
John Russell have motors based in Inverness to deliver the containers “locally”,and subbies do Wick,Thurso and (I think) Ullapool.
13000 truck journeys off the A9 sounds impressive and I suppose the pro-rail lobby and “greenies” will be well pleased.But all it is doing is putting 13000 trucks onto Longman Rd in Inverness which weren’t there before.This road is the main one into Inverness from the A9.
scottishcruiser:
bedgar047:
Cant see how that can be cost effective, or are there more stores in the Highlands that we dont know about.
We will see how long it lasts…probably till the grant money runs outI dont know how much it costs to run a train but obviously a train can hold/carry more so maybe 1 train load going up once can keep 10 trucks off the road delivering the same amount? Im sure steady Eddie sat down and worked this out before hes gone ahead with it…
They will prob open up a mini RDC in INverness if they haven’t already got one up there? EIther use there subbies to distribute it or transfer drivers up north if they wish?
I dont know much about trains either, but they must burn a VAST amount of red deisel on a journey. Not very enviromental friendly to say the least.
just gone up and down there today,and funny enough,there wasnt one supermarket trolley at all.
in this instance only,thank god for trains!!!
buck73:
just gone up and down there today,and funny enough,there wasnt one supermarket trolley at all.
in this instance only,thank god for trains!!!
I DO HOPE THEY ROLL THIS OUT BETWEEN NEWARK AND NORFOLK… THOSE WHO GO UP/DOWN THE A17 WILL KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING 
andy bilton:
buck73:
just gone up and down there today,and funny enough,there wasnt one supermarket trolley at all.
in this instance only,thank god for trains!!!I DO HOPE THEY ROLL THIS OUT BETWEEN NEWARK AND NORFOLK…
They’ll have to build railway lines in Norfolk first. They’ve only just got electricity in the villages.
A loco can pull up to 1200 tonnes, or a tandem pair up to 2000tonnes. Maybe this is what they are looking at, though personally I always found that trains only really paid with big heavy loads such as steel.
I have heard all this crap before !!!
Tescos railfreight grant is worked out on mileage PPK so the more the say they are taking of the road the more cash they get, but there is nothing to say that all journeys have to be by rail, plus rail couldnt cope with that out of central scotland
The goverment grant section accepts what is put before them by the likes of tesco with any due diligance, and they get paid up front !!
Plus a grant for converting trailers and any specialized equipment for the handling of the the transfer
The rail bit is just trunking from Daventry to Grangemouth. From Grangemouth to the individual stores will be by road.
Didnt Tesco’s at one time run to Georgemas(?) Junction in the Far North by rail?
I believe Malcolm also run from Daventry to Grangemouth hauled by Direct Rail so they will probably run both together in one train.
Tofer, the line is already there,
Down (Oops… UP) the East Coast Mainline to Peterborough then turn left to Norwich
Railways in Norfolk who knew?
PS My Dad lives in Sheringham so I’ve spent many hours traveling from civilisation to the Hinterlands lol
G8YMW:
The rail bit is just trunking from Daventry to Grangemouth. From Grangemouth to the individual stores will be by road.
That bit’s old news G8YMW, it’s the extension of the present service up to Inverness and back which this story is about.
BBC NEWS:
The company behind a new rail freight service from Inverness to Grangemouth claims it will cut 13,000 lorry journeys a year on the busy A9 route.Stobart Rail, in partnership with Tesco, has launched the six-days a week service with its share of £3m funding from the Scottish Government.
They seem to be expecting other companies (Morrisons, Asda etc ?) to use their service too.
I doubt that Tesco’s have 13,000 loads of their own on the A9 a year. Do they run 42 loads a day, 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year (41 loads two days a week) on their own ?
A DHL magazine I was reading in the canteen a couple of months back was alleging that my site was sending stuff in a container for shipping from DIRFT to Scotland. I’ve never seen any containers in our yard, although we do trunk a decker up to Carnforth for a trailer swap to go onto scotland.
Simon:
I doubt that Tesco’s have 13,000 loads of their own on the A9 a year. Do they run 42 loads a day, 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year (41 loads two days a week) on their own ?
The Inverness Extra is the busiest Tesco store in Scotland.It receives in excess of 20 loads a day 
There are also 2 more Tescos in Inverness (and they,ve just got permission for a 4th).Plus they have shops in Aviemore,Elgin,Forres,Dingwall,Ullapool,Wick and Thurso.
The news report says 13000 journeys,not loads.Presumably Livingston-Inverness is one journey and the return trip is another.
Back in the early 80s I worked for Thorn EMI and I was part of a group that looked hard at the economics of transporting white goods by rail instead of road. We came to the conclusion that, even if the rail part of the journey was totally free, road transport was still cheaper.
Bearing in mind that there were attractive subsidies on offer and that the cost of fuel has not really risen compared to inflation, I find it hard to believe that ES will keep this going when the subsidy runs out.
I should have gone to specsavers Simon