RAIL FREIGHT GROUP (RFG) East-West Rail Position Paper 18 July 2017 RAIL FREIGHT GROUP (RFG) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The reopening of East West Rail link will play a vital role in supporting economic development of the Oxford-Cambridge corridor, including new housing and infrastructure. Rail freight has a significant role to play in supporting and servicing that development, in supply of construction materials and in facilitating efficient logistics for consumer goods. Estimates suggest that some 85,000+ homes are planned in the corridor over the next twenty years. As each freight train can move the equivalent of 30 houses worth of building materials, and keep up to 75 lorries off the roads, it is clear that encouraging rail freight must be a key imperative. To demonstrate the potential of the route, we have produced a position paper outlining where rail freight is already successfully operating, and where the reopened route offers opportunities for growth. Yet this cannot happen unless rail freight is planned from the outset, particularly given that new and different approaches to funding, construction and operation are being considered. We therefore urge Government to ensure that rail freight is a key part of the development of this route. EAST - WEST RAIL: FREIGHT POTENTIAL 1. Route and Infrastructure capability This study has assumed the route of East- West Rail (E-WR) phase one to be Oxford North Junc. – Bicester Gavray Junc. - Claydon LNE junc. – Bletchley Flyover Junc. – Bedford St. Johns – Bedford Midland. The route of Phase Two is, at present, unclear but will link the Phase One route at Bedford to Cambridge, with a link on to the ECML in the St. Neots/Sandy/Hitchin area, depending on the route selected. On the existing E-WR Phase One route the state of the infrastructure is as follows: Oxford North Junc. – Bicester Gavray Junc. The route is fully upgraded as stage one of the E-WR to enable Chiltern Railway’s Marylebone to Oxford passenger service to operate. Bicester Gavray Junc. – Claydon LNE Junc. This single track section is still open officially for traffic but has no booked services operating over it, only diverted freights when the route from Claydon to Aylesbury is blocked for overnight engineering work. Infrastructure has not been significantly upgraded. Claydon LNE Junc. The run round loop and signal box are still operational and used by waste/spoil services to Calvert for trains to reverse and locos to run round their trains. Claydon LNE Junc. – Swanbourne. Line mothballed since 1993, with track missing in places. Unusable. Swanbourne – Bletchley Cambridge Junc. (includes Bletchley Flyover) Line in usable condition but no regular traffic uses it. Bletchley Cambridge Junc. – Bedford Midland. Line used for both passenger and freight services. This section of route had a partial upgrade in the early 2000s and is now controlled from Marston Vale Signalling Centre. In assessing rail freight potential it has been assumed that the entire route (including the infrastructure presently used by Network Rail) will be built/upgraded to the following standards: Route Availability 10 – 25.5 tonne axle loads with no restricted line speeds. Gauge W12 - 9ft 6in container on 1000mm deck height flat wagon. Speed 75 mph maximum for freight (Class 4) except where curvature/Permanent Speed Restrictions mean a lower speed limit. 2. Existing Freight Flows using E-WR Phase One a) Whatley Quarry to Oxford Banbury Road aggregate terminal, between Oxford North Junc. And Oxford Banbury Road. b) Various waste/spoil flows to Calvert, use Claydon LNE Junc. Loop to reverse and run round. (see also later section on HS2 traffic). c) Bletchley Cemex aggregate terminal to Peak Forest quarry between Bletchley and Bedford Midland. d) MoD services from Didcot Yard, Marchwood, Kineton and Donnington to Bicester Central Ordnance Depot between Oxford North Junc. and Bicester. e) Derby Litchurch Lane to Bletchley Depot (new rolling stock deliveries) Bedford Midland to Bletchley. Of the above the use of the line is as follows: Whatley – Banbury Road both outbound and return. Didcot Yard, Marchwood, Kineton and Donnington – Bicester both outbound and return. Bletchley – Peak Forest northbound service only. Derby to Bletchley southbound service only. 3. Present Active Rail Freight Terminals on E-WR a) Oxford Banbury Road – Hanson Aggregates Terminal. Recently rebuilt just north of Oxford Parkway Station. Served by a daily train of aggregates from Whatley Quarry. b) Bicester COD –MOD central stores location. The depot is located on an extremely large site that has its own internal rail network, although much of it is now unused. The depot has its own on site intermodal terminal. Has a daily booked train from Didcot Yard, Marchwood, Kineton or Donnington. c) Bletchley - Cemex Aggregates Terminal. The terminal is adjacent to Bletchley station just below the Bletchley Flyover. Receives 3 or 4 trains per week from Cemex’s Dove Holes Quarry, Peak Forest. 4. Present Freight Flows that could divert to E-WR when it opens There is some potential for re-routing freight via the route. However no assessment has been made of the network wide capacity implications of these diversions. Indeed some may depend on the available capacity on the West Coast Main Line post the opening of HS2. Equally no assessment has been made of any changes in journey time or costs for operators, and some options may not be advantageous for all. (a) Some Southampton to North West England (Manchester/Liverpool/Widnes) intermodal trains. These services would be diverted to ease congestion on other parts of the network around Birmingham (Coventry corridor/Water Orton corridor). The Southampton to NW (and vice versa) services would divert onto E- WR at Oxford North Junc. and run through to Bletchley, joining the WCML at Denbigh South Junc. (Milton Keynes), where the E-WR has a spur connecting onto the slow lines of the WCML. (b) Southampton to Daventry intermodal trains. These would divert to E-WR to provide a routing that avoids London. Presently they are routed via Basingstoke, Virginia Water, Kew, Willesden and the WCML. Diversion onto E-WR would take these trains away from the increasingly busy SW main line from Basingstoke to Weybridge and permit full W10 gauge traffic to be carried. Instead they would join E-WR at Oxford North Junc. Then via Bletchley and the WCML. (c) Port Talbot to Corby steel coil traffic. This traffic is presently routed via the Lickey Incline, Birmingham Camp Hill line, Water Orton corridor, Nuneaton, Leicester Manton Junc. And Corby. Traffic levels are for one train per day, but there is a pathway for an additional train. Re-routing this train to E-WR would provide both a shorter journey and remove it from the congested Water Orton corridor (also dispensing with the need for a banking loco on the Lickey Incline). These trains would be re-routed via Severn Tunnel Junc., Swindon, Didcot Foxhall Junc., Oxford North Junc., E-WR, Bedford Midland and Kettering. (d) Whatley Quarry to Northampton aggregates. These aggregates trains are presently routed via Westbury, Newbury, Reading, Acton, Acton Wells Junc., Willesden, WCML and Northampton. They would be re-routed via E-WR from Reading West Junc. via Didcot, Oxford North Junc., E-WR, Bletchley Flyover, Denbigh Hall Junc., Milton Keynes and Northampton. The advantages of the re- routing are that they are diverted off the congested GWML between Reading and Acton (especially post Crossrail opening) and the WCML between Willesden and Denbigh Hall Junc. The route via E-WR is some 17 miles shorter. (e) Felixstowe to Bristol/Wentloog intermodal services. After the opening of E-WR stage 2 from Bedford to Cambridge it would be sensible to divert the Felixstowe to Bristol/Wentloog intermodal services onto E-WR. This would free up pathways on the congested section of the GEML (Colchester to Stratford0, the NLL (Stratford to Willesden Junc.) and the GWML (Acton to Reading). This congestion is likely to increase post Crossrail on both the GEML and GWML. These intermodal services would be re-routed from Ipswich via the Bacon Factory Curve, Stowmarket, Bury St. Edmunds, Newmarket, Cambridge, E-WR, Didcot Foxhall Junc. And Swindon. 5. Potential Sites for Rail Freight Terminal Development along E-WR In addition to the existing terminals outlined in section 3 (above), there are a number of locations along E-WR (especially phase one) that have significant development potential as rail freight terminals. These are: (a) Bicester MOD land. The MOD maintain their main storage depot at Bicester, which has a private siding connection just south of Bicester Village station (formerly Bicester Town station). This private siding gives connects to the substantial MOD internal railway which accesses a site of well over 100 acres. Much of this is now surplus to the MOD’s requirements, with the remaining MOD activity concentrated on warehouses and an intermodal terminal relatively close to the private siding connection. In 2007 the MOD sounded out the rail freight industry over the site’s potential and there was considerable interest. However the MOD have not pursued any of the options outlined during their “open day” for the rail industry. Despite this (and some of the land being used for housing development) there is a substantial area of land that could be developed for rail connected use. The site features in the Cherwell Valley Local Authority local plan and has the local authority’s support for a rail terminal development. The site comes with the following facilities: (i) On site intermodal terminal for container traffic. (ii) Internal rail network. (iii) Internal road network. (iv) Secure gated road access direct onto the A41 (Bicester Ring Road) and only 3 miles from Junction 9 of the M40 (Wendlebury Intersection with the A34).