Asda to take load off road congestion in rail switch

Supermarket giant Asda plans to supply its four Aberdeen branches by rail – saving more than 800,000 lorry miles a year.

The proposal – at an advanced stage – was revealed last night at a meeting of the Commons Transport Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the future of the railways.

Head of logistics Paul Wright said later that initially a daily service from the Grangemouth distribution centre – itself supplied by rail from the English Midlands – would keep stores at Middleton Park, Portlethen, Bridge of Dee and Dyce supplied with “ambient goods”, which do not require temperature-controlled transport.

The service will start in January.

He added that the eventual intention is to transport food in refrigerated containers as well.

Transport development manager Peter Wildman said the service was being started without the aid of Government assistance, but added that, in the longer term, “we will probably need a grant and we will be applying to the Scottish Executive.”

Transport committee chairwoman Gwyneth Dunwoody said after the meeting: “I was very encouraged by the attitude of Asda. I think they have done a lot of work with great professionalism and we would all benefit from that kind of initiative.”

In evidence, Mr Wright made it clear that Asda had taken a calculated decision to reduce reliance on road transport because of increasing congestion and had identified savings by using rail.

But he said the superstore was also concerned to protect the environment and would transfer further supplies to rail so long as the cost did not become prohibitive.

But he did reveal rail’s biggest drawbacks. He said trains were only 90 reliable compared with a 95-98 reliability for road haulage.

And the biggest drawback was the failure of the railways to offer a seven-days-a-week service, shutting down on Saturdays for unpredictable engineering works without making any alternatives available.

It meant, said Mr Wright, having to force Asda drivers to work the most undesirable, unsociable hours of the week to deliver goods needed on Sunday mornings.

He also revealed that there were “prohibitive” costs involved with entering rail operations and that it took the Strategic Rail Authority from June to September last year to agree an initial 61 support for a £1.1million Malcolm Group freight terminal, containers and equipment, with a further grant from the Scottish Executive for trailers to be based in Scotland.

In evidence, the company said its existing daily train from Daventry to Grangemouth saves 4million lorry miles a year and, altogether, Asda’s rail initiative saves 314,000 gallons of diesel a year and has taken 6,140 lorries off the congested M6 in England and M74 in Scotland.

The firm’s memorandum said another daily train is planned from a new distribution centre near Leicester to Scotland and “by the summer of 2004, we hope to save 6million road miles per annum by using rail.”

Asda’s decision contrasts with that of the Royal Mail to stop using the English, Welsh and Scottish Railway company to run mail trains and concentrate on road and air freight, using modern jets to save £90million in transport costs and secure a more reliable delivery service.