Overnight parcel service to bring huge increase in Highland rail freight traffic

VITAL rail freight traffic in the Highlands is set to increase substantially at the end of this month, when freight operator EWS introduces a new overnight express parcel service from Walsall, in the Midlands, to Inverness

The private freight company’s initiative follows a similar experimental “supply and demand” service introduced last summer, which ended in December, when the needs of its original customers changed

The new service, which will also serve Central Scotland and Aberdeen, will transport goods by rail overnight between Walsall and Inverness in less than nine hours, a saving of up to five hours on the journey by road freight. It will operate Sunday to Thursday every week

EWS has invested GBP1million in rolling stock to introduce this service, together with over GBP100,000 at its Millburn depot in Inverness, to provide loading and unloading services, and a facility to sort parcels out for onward transmission

The new service means that parcels arriving at Inverness before 9am can be delivered onwards by road that same day to any Highland destination

In future some parcels for more northerly destinations may continue northwards on their journey by rail

Scottish-bound parcel trains from Walsall will stop initially at Law, Lanarkshire, where wagons with cargoes destined for Central Scotland will be off-loaded. The remainder of the train will split into two sections, one bound for Inverness, the other for Aberdeen

EWS spokesman Graham Meiklejohn said Securicor was its main customer for the new service, but the freight company planned to expand, and was actively seeking other business

It is also seeking potential freight customers for its return Monday-to-Friday journeys from Inverness

The parcel service has been welcomed by Highland rail development manager Frank Roach, who said: “For the first time it will be possible to get a guaranteed next-day delivery anywhere in the northern Highlands.” Meanwhile oil traffic is again flowing along the Far North railway line each week after an absence of 13 years. Since last month, a BP train of fuel tank wagons, hauled by an EWS locomotive, has arrived each Tuesday from Grangemouth at the fuel depot beside Lairg Station

Using the newly-refurbished sidings, up to eight 50-tonne tankers disgorge their loads simultaneously through pumps to the adjoining storage tanks on Wednesdays, and the trains depart on Thursday mornings

All freight traffic ceased north of Inverness after the Ness railway bridge collapsed during flooding in February, 1989. Rail freight is now used by Caithness refrigerator manufacturer Norfrost and has also been used for the transport of metal pipes to Caithness

Heavy locomotives can now pull Caithness cargoes directly to Thurso, following the GBP50,000 upgrading of a bridge south of the town by Railtrack, and the instalment of freight facilities at Thurso Station, with the aid of a GBP289,000 Scottish Executive grant Copyright 2002 Aberdeen Press & Journal.

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