the question is what were they carrying as a load
as many have pointed out vegetables and fruit, do
not know what timetables are for,how long did
it take to load the complete train
It’ll be car parts from the Ford plant at Valencia. I saw a load of the boxes in the rail yard at Dagenham the other day.
I read that it was for oranges and lemons, but think how many onions they will be able to get on, 30 tonne loads, Oh I forgot, they do that already 
CHEP do much more than blue wooden pallets, especially in the car industry.
Reading the mentioned article it would seem Stobart actually are carrying fruit and other goods.
For how long■■?
I have been caught up in several Spanish protests over the years usually to do with Spanish drivers protecting their interests,not the most pleasant of affairs.
I expect Stobarts train will continue to operate until the day arrives when it actually put’s a Spanish lorry driver out of a job.
Well I would have thought that 30 loads of fruit and veg (eventually per day I think) will put a fair few Spaniards out of work and a few Brits too. They have guarantee’s from the French and Spanish the trains will not be delayed. The mighty Eddie, onwards and upwards… 
Silver Surfer I do remember my local press,who were interested in my predicament at the time stuck in a Spanish protest,informing me that the Spanish police were working tirelessly to get us all moving safely,not a force at the time we ‘victims’ had much confidence in.Time will tell,if it takes so many Spanish lorries off the road the French will love it and we European travellers might find it easier to park up at night.The Spanish do seem to be blessed with the same drivers doing the job as we are,'old fogey’s of which I am now one.the train might one day be of great benefit.
I see from reading the Stobart site, that to fulfil the much quoted mantra of running loaded both ways they will be loading Chep pallets back.
There will soon be a good size heap of Cheps in Valencia!
Les zizis des routiers sont sympas
Do they have to stop and turn all the reefer units off before they go through the tunnel? If not why not as they want the fridges, along with everything in the cab turned off on the truck trains.
It’s up to truck drivers at the end of the day.If we don’t just want to become road/rail container shunters just don’t do intermodal road/rail work.
Coffeeholic:
Do they have to stop and turn all the reefer units off before they go through the tunnel? If not why not as they want the fridges, along with everything in the cab turned off on the truck trains.
Ah, so Carryfast need not worry then, at least truck drivers will be needed to take the reefer boxes to the garage to fill them up with diesel 
Unless they can take the freezer power from the train or the overhead lines
Wheel Nut:
Coffeeholic:
Do they have to stop and turn all the reefer units off before they go through the tunnel? If not why not as they want the fridges, along with everything in the cab turned off on the truck trains.Ah, so Carryfast need not worry then, at least truck drivers will be needed to take the reefer boxes to the garage to fill them up with diesel
Unless they can take the freezer power from the train or the overhead lines
Dunno if you have been through recently Malc but they want everything turned off now. If a driver leaves a sat nav or phone switched on in the cab they stop the bus on the way back up the train and make the driver get off and turn it off. Last week they stopped the bus because a driver had left a light on in his cab, turned out it was the red LED which showed his alarm was on and he couldn’t turn it off.
Coffeeholic:
Wheel Nut:
Coffeeholic:
Do they have to stop and turn all the reefer units off before they go through the tunnel? If not why not as they want the fridges, along with everything in the cab turned off on the truck trains.Ah, so Carryfast need not worry then, at least truck drivers will be needed to take the reefer boxes to the garage to fill them up with diesel
Unless they can take the freezer power from the train or the overhead lines
Dunno if you have been through recently Malc but they want everything turned off now. If a driver leaves a sat nav or phone switched on in the cab they stop the bus on the way back up the train and make the driver get off and turn it off. Last week they stopped the bus because a driver had left a light on in his cab, turned out it was the red LED which showed his alarm was on and he couldn’t turn it off.
Not been through since March, but have had to do the walk of shame when I left an interior light on
It’s the elves again innit?
Wheel Nut:
Coffeeholic:
Do they have to stop and turn all the reefer units off before they go through the tunnel? If not why not as they want the fridges, along with everything in the cab turned off on the truck trains.Ah, so Carryfast need not worry then, at least truck drivers will be needed to take the reefer boxes to the garage to fill them up with diesel
Unless they can take the freezer power from the train or the overhead lines
No it’ll be those Spanish truck drivers who think like me that if they don’t want us to haul the load to where it’s going then they can do without us anyway because we’ll either be too busy running something where we can get some miles under the wheels or we just won’t bother at all and we’ll all get one of those jobs driving buses which they’ve always got advertised at the jobcentre because no one likes driving locally to the shops and back.Now all we need is for the British drivers to take the same view and those reefers can just keep going back and forward between the railheads until they find a way of bringing trains to the shops and/or the RDC’s. 
Carryfast:
Wheel Nut:
Coffeeholic:
Do they have to stop and turn all the reefer units off before they go through the tunnel? If not why not as they want the fridges, along with everything in the cab turned off on the truck trains.Ah, so Carryfast need not worry then, at least truck drivers will be needed to take the reefer boxes to the garage to fill them up with diesel
Unless they can take the freezer power from the train or the overhead lines
No it’ll be those Spanish truck drivers who think like me that if they don’t want us to haul the load to where it’s going then they can do without us anyway because we’ll either be too busy running something where we can get some miles under the wheels or we just won’t bother at all and we’ll all get one of those jobs driving buses which they’ve always got advertised at the jobcentre because no one likes driving locally to the shops and back.Now all we need is for the British drivers to take the same view and those reefers can just keep going back and forward between the railheads until they find a way of bringing trains to the shops and/or the RDC’s.
It is only a bit of fun, but you can do your 1000 mile trips and then have 3 or 4 days relaxing while a Spaniard takes your truck to load it and bring it back
Wheel Nut:
Carryfast:
Wheel Nut:
Coffeeholic:
Do they have to stop and turn all the reefer units off before they go through the tunnel? If not why not as they want the fridges, along with everything in the cab turned off on the truck trains.Ah, so Carryfast need not worry then, at least truck drivers will be needed to take the reefer boxes to the garage to fill them up with diesel
Unless they can take the freezer power from the train or the overhead lines
No it’ll be those Spanish truck drivers who think like me that if they don’t want us to haul the load to where it’s going then they can do without us anyway because we’ll either be too busy running something where we can get some miles under the wheels or we just won’t bother at all and we’ll all get one of those jobs driving buses which they’ve always got advertised at the jobcentre because no one likes driving locally to the shops and back.Now all we need is for the British drivers to take the same view and those reefers can just keep going back and forward between the railheads until they find a way of bringing trains to the shops and/or the RDC’s.
It is only a bit of fun, but you can do your 1000 mile trips and then have 3 or 4 days relaxing while a Spaniard takes your truck to load it and bring it back
I think they said it’s going to be 30 return truckloads at a time.So Jose and all his mates with whatever replaced those brilliant old Pegasos can do 15 of them and me and whoever else here wants to can do the other 15.But there’s no way that we’re going to tranship it all,within a few miles of getting it all loaded,onto a train so that we can go back a few miles down the road and get some more to put on the same train just to keep the rail company happy and in business.My idea is once it’s on the wagon destined for Spain it stays there until it’s reached it’s destination and I get paid to take it all the way and then I get paid to bring back the return load.It’s a bit like a London cabby picking up a fare at Heathrow who wants to be taken by cab to Scotland and the cabby deciding wether to drop the fare at Euston or getting paid to go to Glasgow where there’s another fare waiting to come back to Heathrow.It’s a no brainer.I’m all for intermodal transport just so long as it’s by road or by sea using the boats when we need to like when we need to cross the channel.But I’ll enjoy my days off between the runs spending some of the money which I’ve earnt by doing my job.Which is why I decided to do it in the beginning or I’d have been a train driver.Anyway let’s hope that Jose has the same idea at the Spanish end.