Stobart have announced a new intermodal chilled rail service in conjunction with db schenkers european subsidiaries Euro cargo rail.
3 trains per week 30 reefers per train direct from valencia to the uk via the channel tunnel.
Has this been tried before? I wouldn`t have thought rail could get its act together enough to match the speed of road?
JB:
Stobart have announced a new intermodal chilled rail service in conjunction with db schenkers european subsidiaries Euro cargo rail.
3 trains per week 30 reefers per train direct from valencia to the uk via the channel tunnel.
Has this been tried before? I wouldn`t have thought rail could get its act together enough to match the speed of road?
This could work JB, it is the first time the same operating company has had total control of the load all the way from A to B. Plus the Germans are probably more efficient.
I posted an advert today for the drivers, 28k per annum after training
I think this was posted on here early?? , what happens when one of the country’s
train service goes on strike, also how long will the journey take and is it foolproof
Containers sent from Germany (Düsseldorf–Köln )to Italy (Bustio) can not make it
on time, This is also true for the containers going to and fro from Germany --to–
Spain,
the boxes from italy usually take 3 days tranisit and are usually delivered either with in 1-3 days or arrival or the following week
im on this work at the moment loading usually for italy job is for a german based company
i have a feeling stobarts will make this work as its for tesco also they stobarts are going to start railing trailers piggybacked to scotland on the train not sure when it starting though
at the moment a double man fridge can leave valencia in the morning and get on the ferry the same night. therefore being able to deliver after statutory breaks the next afternoon.
i can’t see the trains being able to keep up the competition because they won’t be able to use the high speed rail lines in spain and to cross three different countries will take lots of messing about with engines and drivers.
ok for non important or non chilled but don’t think the spanish have anything to worry about and if they did they’d just strike for a week and stop everything again
its the bulk loading and shipping that gives the train the advantage say 20+ wagons and 2 drivers thats it this is where the train wins over road transport straight through the tunnel to and upto dirft calais allowing
From rail experience of EWS in the past, the services from Dollands Moor were the breaking point, it just seemed as though there wasn’t any urgency. A call from our office to EWS requesting the whereabouts of an expected unit could take 4 or 5 hours to be told it is in a siding in Cardiff. Not really a lot of good when the unit is supposedly on route through Willesden up to the Tees Freightliner or Eurocentral.
Because one company has got control of the whole train and the drivers, it could work. I know the Busto Arsizio service is not the best as Swiss can still cause the bottlenecks.
It wasn’t so many years ago that the Spanish used a different gauge track to the rest of Europe and the units had to be transhipped in Perpignan
welshboyinspain:
at the moment a double man fridge can leave valencia in the morning and get on the ferry the same night. therefore being able to deliver after statutory breaks the next afternoon.
i can’t see the trains being able to keep up the competition because they won’t be able to use the high speed rail lines in spain and to cross three different countries will take lots of messing about with engines and drivers.
No, but trains are generally cheaper. Double manned train will deliver hundreds of tons at one time 
we used to load containers for Andrew Weir in Sony bridgend for Sony barcelona which would usually go to willesden for the train but if the factory was running low on certain products we could run them down by road with single driver quicker than the train 
orys:
welshboyinspain:
at the moment a double man fridge can leave valencia in the morning and get on the ferry the same night. therefore being able to deliver after statutory breaks the next afternoon.
i can’t see the trains being able to keep up the competition because they won’t be able to use the high speed rail lines in spain and to cross three different countries will take lots of messing about with engines and drivers.No, but trains are generally cheaper. Double manned train will deliver hundreds of tons at one time
Thats right orys… but tescos wont want out of date fruit arriving on there shelves. Ive not done european fridge work in any great detail, but i know a lot of drivers who have, and they tell me its normal to wait at packhouses for fruit to be picked, washed and loaded within hours?
I was thinking the same as welshboy, its going to take too long by rail .
orys:
No, but trains are generally cheaper. Double manned train will deliver hundreds of tons at one time
i’m no expert on train drivers but i don’t think they do nights out orys so many more drivers needed for valencia to uk than 2 
and as for weight how does it get to the train in the first place and how does it get to the rdc? all done by trucks
just think 2 trucks load warehouse in spain both leave at same time, after 19 hours one is at the english channel the other has unloaded container into handling area which then waits for 20 or 30 others to make up a train which as previously posted will run 3 times a week so every 2 days then.
by the time the road one has tipped the train one is just leaving spain then drivers need to change for france which probably takes two seperate drivers and another day or two gone until arrives at chunnel then up to dirft next day to be unloaded then moved to rdc
probably about 4 days for that by which time road vehicle back in spain for next load and when you’re talking fresh produce that will make a difference
welshboyinspain:
orys:
No, but trains are generally cheaper. Double manned train will deliver hundreds of tons at one timei’m no expert on train drivers but i don’t think they do nights out orys so many more drivers needed for valencia to uk than 2
and as for weight how does it get to the train in the first place and how does it get to the rdc? all done by trucks
The vacancy is looking for drivers at the following locations.
Calais, Rouen, Tours, Chalons en Champagne, Paris, Bourg-en-Bresse, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nancy
Valencia to Crick 1240 miles @ 56mph = 22hrs. How fast does a train go?
@Wheelnut it doesn,t matter how fast the train will travel,
as it,s speed will have to go at the pace allowed on the free
track space it will be allocated,and Freight trains do not
get priority at Present and believe me the passengers will
not except being slowed down by a freight train,
For White goods, or loads that will not deteriorate when
the travel time takes too long will be okay,but Fresh
fruit etc I think they may be problems■■?
i notice from other posts on other topics wheel nut knows a bit about trains, so those adverts would mean that the drivers would do a lot of changeovers?
how does it work with a train? so many hours in one direction then change drivers and then they drive a different one back home?
if thats the case all those places would be stop starting many times?
i’ve not got a clue but i know they take 2nd place behind passenger trains
One of the biggest problems will be getting all the packhouses to have their produce, picked, washed, packed and at the railhead on time, you sometimes sit there for hours now just waiting for them to get 24 tons of the stuff ready, how long will it take them to get 100´s of tons ready ?. Then as stated above the train can go as fast as it wants but it cannot go anywhere before it´s allotted time on a certain stretch of track, the same problem applies if it has been raining and the fruit is late and the train is then too late for its allocated time, it will not be going anywhere.
If a certain importer needs stuff in a hurry a truck can be double manned or as we do it, 1 driver to Barcelona, swap trailers, 2nd vehicle takes it to Macon swaps trailers, next vehicle takes it to Holland where a national driver will deliver it. A train cannot offer this.
I’m sure all you oldies remember Transfesa and their rail service into Paddock Wood - we’d all like to think things have changed, Governments and rail authorities had woken up and streamlined the idea, but I can’t help being a doubting Thomas (no pun intended, tank engine!)
The Norfolk Line intermodal from Novara, even by one of the operators’ admission is less than idea, being hauled as far as Basel by a Dutch firm Crossrail, then SNCF to Frethun, Eurotunnel and then Colas Rail in UK, with all the opportunity that gives for ‘dropped balls’ - so I’m really not sure that as someone said the difference would be one operator throughout, especially as ES would rely on DB Schenker at the end of the day
welshboyinspain:
i notice from other posts on other topics wheel nut knows a bit about trains,
You couldn’t be further from the truth, I just had experience with a German operator doing ADR chemicals into the UK in which we were let down many times by a piece of the jigsaw failing to perform.
What I am saying is this deal with DB Schenker and Stobart Rail has the best chance of succeeding. I am and always will be a truck driver, surely no one will say that there are not enough trucks on the road. I am not a green eco warrior either, but can see the benefits of using rail in some circumstances.
I wrote a piece that I was quite proud to have published in the Commercial Motor and the Yorkshire Post about 25 years ago in which Brit Pete has reiterated my point, ok for white goods, quarry products and steel.
My other information about the service comes from various websites, news articles and keeping an ear on the sound bites. I don’t believe everything I hear or see, but hope I am intelligent enough to make an informed choice.
If the service works, then it will go some way to reducing gridlock in the UK, if it fails then you were right. I was wrong.
Either way, I will keep trundling up and down the congested motorways with my inefficient oil burner and 26 pallet trailer
I maybe wrong but i though that the UK had a narrow gauge compaird to the rest of europe thats why the tunnel trains dont carry on to other cities?
So wont they need to change the boxes over to another train once it comes through the tunnel?
not any more the boxes straight through the tunnel to there final destination
welshboyinspain:
orys:
No, but trains are generally cheaper. Double manned train will deliver hundreds of tons at one time
i’m no expert on train drivers but i don’t think they do nights out orys so many more drivers needed for valencia to uk than 2
I don’t know what are the other countries regulations, but I have a friend who is a cargo train driver and he does 15 hours shifts then he sleeps in train driver hostel and comes back the other day…
But i just don’t believe that someone did not calculated that before… It has to be working.