In message , at 20:50:41 on Tue, 22
Oct 2019, " remarked:
On 22/10/2019 10:12, Graeme Wall wrote:
On 22/10/2019 09:49, Recliner wrote:
From:
https://www.ft.com/content/c2b51fd2-...d8281195?segme
ntId=080b04f5-af92-ae6f-0513-095d44fb3577
One of the Britain’s busiest railway stations is set to take on a
new role
as a freight hub as part of a plan to shuttle goods to central
London from
a container port using old passenger trains.
The first service, which is due to start in May between London
Gateway and
London Liverpool Street, is intended to help hauliers avoid the charges
from London’s Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), which was introduced this
year, and the congestion zone. It would also take traffic off the heavily
congested A13 that links the port near Thurrock in Essex to the capital.
A specialist rail engineering company, Rail Operations Group, is working
with DP World, the owner of London Gateway, to develop the low-emissions
scheme to compete with road hauliers to move consumer goods and freight
nearer to their final destination in London.
Karl Watts, ROG chief executive, said the response to its plans from
logistics companies and retailers had been “overwhelming,” although he
declined to name any customers that had signed up for the service.
Paul Orchard, ROG production director, said a series of different
companies
— including logistics companies and retailers — were looking at
participating.
Heavy goods vehicles that fall short of the standards required for
the ULEZ
have to pay a charge of £100 for each trip into the zone, which
from April
this year mirrors the congestion-charging zone in central London. From
October 2021, Transport for London will extend ULEZ to cover the area
within the north and south circular roads.
Mr Orchard said road hauliers can face environmental charges of up
to £200
on a return trip into the capital depending on timing and the type of
vehicle used. “The margins are in some cases wafer-thin,” Mr
Orchard said
of road transport. “You start adding in an extra £200?.?.?.?and
that’s
enough to make rail competitive.”
ROG, which will offer the service under the “Orion” brand, plans to
initially run three round-trip rail services per day outside of peak
hours.
It plans to use two converted, four-carriage trains that previously
operated the Thameslink cross-London passenger route.
The trains, due for delivery in May, are having their seats removed and
being fitted with diesel engines. The engines will generate power
when the
train is not running on non-electrified lines, such as the freight
sidings
at London Gateway. ROG estimates that each carriage on its trains will
carry around the same as a heavy truck.
Once the packages arrive at Liverpool Street, they will be distributed to
their final destinations around the city by electric van or cargo bikes.
Liverpool Street is the UK’s third-busiest station with 67m passengers
using it in the year to the end of March 2018.
ROG is looking to expand the service and is talking to customers about
other destinations, including possible overnight trains between
London and
Scotland and from London to Bristol.
DP World confirmed it had held discussions with ROG about starting the
service. It said it was also talking to the Port of London Authority on
plans to use barges to move some goods to a site in Fulham, west
London, by
river.
Then ship them up the Grand Union to* Birmingham!
I've wondered whether the Grand Union or even the Caledonian could find
commercial use once again.
Perhaps the Regents Canal from Limehouse up to Paddington Station via
Little Venice? That would require an intermodal station, however.
Does Sweden's Göta Canal ever see any commercial traffic?
If the road hauliers are worried about their HGVs being banned, then
they could recruit OAPs (with Freedom cards) to hand-carry items from a
railhead near the M25. Brentwood to the east and Chorleywood to the
northwest. There's even a pub near each station where the OAPs could
gather while waiting for the HGVs to arrive.
--
Roland Perry