Under the new arrangement, Network Rail and its property arm, Platform4, will take over the site from Legal & General (L&G). The objective is to establish a sophisticated international logistics hub capable of supporting frequent container trains from mainland Europe. Ministers believe that reviving these services will provide British businesses with more direct access to European markets while easing the heavy reliance on road haulage in the South East—specifically targeting congestion on the Dartford Crossing and the M20/M2 corridors.
Barking Eurohub is positioned to solve a long-standing infrastructure headache. Most UK rail lines cannot accommodate the larger “continental-gauge” wagons used across Europe, but Barking is effectively the only major UK cargo terminal designed to handle them.
Network Rail’s upgrade plans include extending sidings to accommodate 700-metre-long freight trains. Crucially, the move toward “neutral” terminal control is intended to make the facility more attractive to a wider range of operators. This shift is vital for building frequent, multi-customer intermodal services, moving away from the occasional, one-off trains that have characterised the route in recent years.
The current landscape: A reliance on road and sea
The government’s announcement acknowledges a stark reality: only a small fraction of rail freight currently uses the Channel Tunnel, and these flows are largely restricted to bulk, single-customer shipments.
Consequently, the vast majority of UK–EU freight still travels by sea, with the “last mile” distribution handled by HGVs. This project specifically targets the “missing middle”—containerised goods that are often too fragmented for dedicated trains unless volumes can be aggregated and schedules made reliable.
Learning from the past: Why services faded away
While the Channel Tunnel has carried freight since the 1990s, sustaining regular intermodal services has proven commercially difficult. The mid-2000s marked a turning point when the expiration of support mechanisms for Tunnel usage tolls made operators highly sensitive to rising costs.
Even after Eurotunnel (now Getlink) introduced more competitive freight pricing in 2008 to relaunch the sector, growth remained hampered by an underdeveloped ecosystem. The Tunnel itself was rarely the primary barrier; rather, the issues were a lack of suitable terminals, the difficulty of aggregating volume, and the need for seamless border processes.
