South Wales quarry boosts rail freight traffic
It has been over sixty years since passenger services called at Machen, a once important railway hub in South Wales. The settlement was at the junction of two routes, and local goods traffic kept the...Read more
UK Freightliner unveils range of new intermodal services
Freightliner has stepped up its service portfolio by offering a game-changing twenty-five new services across England, Wales and Scotland. That’s a significant addition to the UK’s roster of around seven hundred daily freight trains. The...Read more
Resilience reinforced as Network Rail bolsters Severn Estuary Line
The Severn Estuary route has been fortified against weather-related landslips in a complicated engineering feat undertaken by Network Rail, the UK infrastructure agency. The line connects Newport in Wales with Gloucester in England, and is...Read more
Welsh Carmarthen-Aberystwyth line reopening unlikely
Freight operators in Wales are watching the efforts to reinstate the railway line that directly links Carmarthen and Aberystwyth. The line closed in 1965, but a reinstatement could help accelerate the resurgence of Welsh rail...Read more
UK rail links could solve congestion on critical road corridor
New rail links announced between Wales and England are an encouraging step towards easing congestion on the M4 motorway, which parallels the Great Western Mainline (GML). That is the message from Logistics UK, the representative...Read more
UK: No prosecutions over Welsh train incident
The UK safety watchdog, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, released its final report on track damage between Pencoed and Llanharan, in South Wales, on 6 March 2021. That thankfully low-key incident brought memories of the far better known...Read more
Freeport bid coming down the line for North Wales
Ferry and logistics operator Stena Line has partnered with Anglesey County Council, the local government body, and announced a bid to bring a Freeport to North Wales. The partnership intend to submit a major freeport...Read more
Welsh slate lifts the roof on rail freight in the north
Rail freight has another UK first. Traditional Welsh slate aggregate is being transported by rail to Luton, just north of London, in a significant modal shift. The development is a joint initiative between the infrastructure...Read more
Surprise timber trial takes 800 tonnes off Mid-Wales roads
It has been a while since the seaside university town of Aberystwyth in Mid-Wales has seen a regular freight service. That may be about to change. A surprise timber train departed on Saturday evening from...Read more
Freight to keep running during seven-week Severn Estuary works
Almost fifty weekly freight trains will continue to run on a section of the railway closing to passenger services during a seven-week engineering programme. The Severn Estuary line between Gloucester and the Welsh border town...Read more
Freight and passenger traffic clash between England and Wales
A dispute over track access rights has put the brakes on both passenger and freight development on a line connecting North Wales and Merseyside. Local campaigners and politicians say it is a blight on economic...Read more
Seeing the wood for the trees
Another UK timber trial project has seen a flow return to rail freight. A sawmill in Abergavenny in Wales has received its first load of rail-transported timber since 2004. The rebirth of the load is down...Read more
Penmaenmawr Quarry Rail Terminal opens
In the UK the continued growth in demand for aggregates is fuelling expansion in the bulk rail freight sector. The latest addition to the roster is a little known quarry on the North Wales coast...Read more
Union Connectivity Review recommends better rail freight links at ports
The UK Union Connectivity Review, published today (Friday 26 November), has recommended improved rail freight at British ports to maximise the economic potential of the government-backed freeport network. The UK government commissioned the Review to...Read more
Climate change resilience for vital England – Wales freight link
Network Rail has announced a 25 million pound (28 million euro) investment to secure the future of what they describe as a critical cross-border transport link, serving freight operations in both Wales and England. Details...Read more
One year since Welsh freight derailment
Agencies, including Network Rail, have come together to thank the community around Llangennech in South Wales. The town was the site of a derailment and fire in August last year, which necessitated the evacuation of...Read more
UK report into links between 4 nations favours rail freight
Several rail connections between the four nations of the United Kingdom have been prioritised in the interim report of the UK Union Connectivity Review. These include connections between Scotland and England via the West Coast...Read more
Slick work cleans up Welsh oil spill
It has taken six months and the cooperation of agencies from all across Wales to rectify a derailed train, wrecked rails, a massive fire, an oil spill, and an environmental disaster on the railway line...Read more
Freight figures big in UK Union Connectivity Review
Better connections between the four nations of the UK have been the subject of the UK Union Connectivity Review – an examination of links over the borders of the United Kingdom. Commissioned at the height...Read more