In a statement, Maritime said that the first train operating on the new service had departed on Monday 4th July. According to the company, the service “provides carbon-reducing routes to and from the Northwest for the European short-sea and UK domestic markets, and further supports Maritime’s commitment to tackling climate change.”
It is estimated that the service will take as many as 20,000 lorry journeys off UK roads per year.
The Tilbury to Manchester service, which runs five days per week from Monday to Friday, is said to be capable of moving 45′ pallet-wide, 40′, and 20′ deep-sea containers, with a total transport capacity of 80 TEU in each direction.
Commenting on the news, John Bailey, Managing Director of Intermodal and Terminals at Maritime Transport, said that Maritime was proud to be working with P&O:
“We are very proud to be working with Forth Ports & P&O Ferries and to see the beginning of our Tilbury – Trafford Park service, demonstrating our drive to engineer even more rail freight solutions for the market, and our hands-on approach to reducing not just our own carbon footprint, but that of our customers. Rail is the key to decarbonisation and we will continue to support modal shift by increasing the proportion of freight transported by rail.”
Thorsten Runge, Managing Director of Freight Services at P&O Ferries, added:
“We are delighted to be hosting a direct rail link from TILBURY2 which will further increase options for importers and exporters. We are determined to make P&O Ferries the best ferry company in Europe – the best ships, the best routes, and the best value for freight customers – and providing vitally important trade routes for UK exporters and trading partners is central to our aim of making trade flow.”
Maritime’s statement also noted its recently completed redevelopment scheme at Trafford Park Euroterminal, which the company says is now a “state-of-the-art, strategic intermodal (rail/road) interchange”.
Maritime says the £13.5m regeneration project involved substantive remediation of the 20-acre terminal, including repaving the container park, upgrading buildings, security, and new container handling equipment (six heavy-duty reach stackers for loaded container lifting and four empty container handlers). To support increased train throughput, the container park can now store up to 4,000 TEU.