143 NEWSHelping ensure a sustainable future for UK rail freight September 2020 iPort Rail named RFG’s Business of the Year Judges commend its vision for the future and drive to make it a reality P.3 iPort Rail has won ‘Business of the Year’ at needed to implement it.” Rail freight starts to the Rail Freight Group’s annual excellence awards event, with judges praising its Held on 10 September, the awards were play its part in HS2 outstanding vision for the future of the rail presented by the event sponsors and presenters freight sector. on the night John Smith, MD of GB Railfreight (GBRf), and Simon Coppen of Burges Salmon. Chosen by the awards judges from all the entries received, iPort Rail had demonstrated Accepting the award on behalf of iPort Rail, how it achieved excellence in customer care, Managing Director Steve Freeman said: “Some environmental standards and innovation. of the strategic partnerships that we’ve had over the last couple of years have helped us Judges said: “iPort Rail has spent years planning enormously. We’ve all faced some difficult times and investing heavily to build the first inland rail over the past six months and as we go into 2021 P.9 freight terminal to be open and operational for there’s no doubt that they’re going to continue. AV Dawson launches a decade. Now, as well as attracting six daily The challenges that we face are coming from intermodal services from around the country, it a number of areas however this industry is Port of Middlesbrough has also proved that medium distance rail flows nothing if not resilient. If we continue to partner are viable. In fact, this business has actually and work well together, we will continue to thrive been instrumental in helping some of the rail together. And work hard to get a bigger share of freight flows cited in other award entries. The the UK’s logistics market.” judges were impressed by this business taking a vision for the future and then doing everything Continued on page 2. P.18 Tarmac stays on track with Highlands timber trial paves the way for new rail freight contracts future services Article on page 6. P. 27 VTG and DB Cargo unveil new modular wagon RFG Director-General’s Update We know that members really value our annual events RFG Awards programme and we are starting to think about options for how we might be able to start some face-to-face meetings success despite in 2021. At the present time, the situation remains unstable but we are committed to finding new ways of bringing people Covid-19 together whenever it is sensible and safe to do so. In the meantime, we are continuing with our programme of webinars restrictions and online meetings, so please do join in with those (see By Maggie Simpson, our events calendar on page 20) and if you are interested in Director-General speaking at an upcoming webinar please do let me know at Rail Freight Group (RFG). [email protected]. As we move into the autumn, we are aware of the challenges It was a great pleasure to host our first virtual Rail Freight ahead for our members with a resurgence of Covid-19 concerns Awards, on the evening of 10 September, and to welcome and the end of the transition period at the end of the year. There more than 100 of our members and supporters to join in are also a number of specific policy areas we are working on, the celebrations. A huge congratulations to all our winners including reforms to the planning system, red diesel relief and and in particular to our Business of the Year winner iPort the so called ‘Project Speed’ reviews of infrastructure projects. Rail. In each case, we are keen to understand members’ perspective on the issues that are being raised and of course on any other Although we have all become accustomed to working online, areas that are relevant. putting on an event of this scale was quite a daunting task, and one that we could not have achieved without the help and In the meantime there continues to be a lot of good news in support of Burges Salmon’s events and technical teams. Thank rail freight, most particularly the start of services to support you to everyone who helped us and of course to all our judges HS2 construction (see page 3). It is really encouraging to see who worked tirelessly to scrutinize and debate all the entries these positive stories and the ongoing demand for rail from our and eventually decide on the deserving winners. I’d also like to customers. Enjoy reading all about it, and our worthy winners, thank the RFG Team for all their work moving the event online. as you look through this edition. • Continued from page 1. Maggie Simpson, RFG Director-General, added: “With all the This year, we were also delighted to welcome award-winning challenges we have had since the start of lockdown in March, it magician Nick Einhorn and his new online magic and mind- can be hard to forget about things which happened ‘pre-Covid’. reading show Virtual Astonishment. Nick wowed all the guests Our Awards offer us a chance to look back at all the positive with his amazing and completely baffling close-up magic, and events and developments that took place in the 12 months up to successfully doing it online is amazing. March, and the very real successes that we were seeing in our industry. And while that may feel a little bitter-sweet, I think it is A huge thank you to Burges Salmon and GBRailfreight for those successes that actually stand our sector in a really good hosting the awards and to Simon Coppen and John Smith for place for recovery and renewed growth. Our resilience, flexibility their presenting and long-standing support for our awards. and adaptability, are the blueprint for our future.” Full list of winners and runners-up on page 4. • More than 100 people attended the virtual event, which was the 13th RFG Awards, and on the night nearly £2000 was raised for the Railway Benefit Fund (RBF) through a charity raffle. Congratulations to all the winners on the night. 2 Sep 2020 News in Brief Tesco and Transfesa • Logistics are now working together to transport fruit and vegetables in refrigerated units from Spain to the UK. Initially, they will be transporting 15 loads each week from the Almussafes rail terminal in Valencia to DB Cargo’s Barking terminal. Wagons will pass through the Transfesa’s Cerbère facility rail freight sector. in the south of France to Rail freight starts change axles to the UIC The Washwood Heath Railhead site, managed standard gauge. its work with HS2 by HS2’s main works partner Balfour Beatty Network Rail is to consult VINCI (BBV), took the first delivery from HS2 • The first rail freight delivery of aggregate on the Ely area capacity has arrived at HS2’s Washwood Heath site preferred aggregates supplier Rail Stone Solutions (RSS) and their rail haulage partner enhancement programme, in Birmingham, signalling the start of its which is set to meet the major programme to take up to 1.5m lorries GB Railfreight (GBRf) on 25 August (see below for more detail). demand for more rail off the roads to cut carbon emissions. freight between the Port Over the next four months, more than 150 of Felixstowe the West Over the next decade, up to 15,000 freight trains Midlands and the North are set to haul some 10m tonnes of aggregate trains will bring up to 235,000 tonnes of stone from quarries in the Peak District, equating to (More on this on page 10). to HS2 construction sites. Each freight train replaces around 70 lorries, representing a keeping an estimated 13,000 lorry movements massive reduction in carbon emissions and off the road. • • On 15 October, RFG’s marking a significant investment for Britain’s Director-General Maggie Simpson is joining a panel debate at the Rail Forum Midlands Annual Conference. She will be and in full. The source point for aggregate will tackling the role of rail GBRf and Rail Stone be a Tarmac quarry in the Derbyshire Peak freight in decarbonising District, one of the aggregate supply locations the railway. Click here for Solutions win two that is strategically critical for the supply by rail details. major HS2 contracts to support HS2. • Network Rail is investing The partnership between GBRf and RSS, GB Railfreight (GBRf) and Rail Stone some £36m in new running up to Christmas, will initially see up Solutions (RSS) have won two contracts to signalling improvements. to 157 trains deliver 235,000 tonnes of Type support construction on the first phase of Equipment which is 1 aggregate for the first phase of construction HS2. The deals, with HS2 contractors EKFB nearly 40 years old will work for HS2. Ten trains per week, conveying (Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial BAM Nuttall) and be replaced as part of the up to 77 tonnes in 20 box wagons, will transport BBV (Balfour Beatty VINCI) will see GBRf join Great North Rail Project. forces with RSS to deliver aggregates to the 1500 tonnes of product per train. This amounts project’s main construction compounds. 15,000 tonnes delivered to site per week. The first trainload arrived at Balfour Beatty • Joe O’Donnell, Head of Policy, has unfortunately As part of the deal with EKFB, GBRf will VINCI’s Washwood Heath construction site now left RFG to take up support the training of new train drivers at last week.