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SEPT 2009 | RAIL BOOST FOR EAST OF ENGLAND

From Business Weekly magazine

The resurgence of the economy and the move to greener transport methods has thrown the East of England into the heart of new innovative rail freight contracts that could help not only boost the economy, but also the environment.

First GBRf, one of the UK’s leading specialist rail freight companies, has struck a new 12 month rolling contract struck with independent freight forwarder, Allport, to handle the carriage of containers from the Port of Felixstowe to Birmingham Intermodal Freight Terminal (BIFT) in North Warwickshire and to Doncaster Europort freight terminal.

The BIFT service has been made possible by extending the route of First GBRf’s existing “common user” service, which currently runs from Felixstowe to Hams Hall in Birmingham, and increasing its capacity to 26 wagons, making this the longest train out of the Port of Felixstowe.

The modified service operates daily from Felixstowe, with a commitment to move the equivalent of 300 lorry journeys a week, including high cube allocations on both services.

It marks the first time First GBRf, which has a third of its UK-wide hubs located in the East of England, has carried goods to the BIFT inland terminal.

Kevin Witmore, Allport’s operations director, said: “We anticipate that demand from Felixstowe, already picking up, will continue to grow in the medium term, so the increased capacity we have secured with the First GBRf deal means that we can help ease congestion by transferring more freight to rail.

“We are encouraging customers, when appropriate, to utilise high cube containers because we believe that they provide a cost effective alternative to standard ISO boxes and lessen the environmental impact of each freight kilo carried.”

Ashley Stower, head of business development and marketing, said: “At First GBRf we are renowned for finding innovative solutions to problems for our customers, so when Allport were having issues with a lack of capacity for high cube containers we were able to step in and help.”

The deal follows hot on the heels of a new multi-year contract with Lafarge, which will see aggregates transported to Northamptonshire by rail for the first time.

Under the terms of the new deal, First GBRf will carry the coarse particulate material from the plant in Leicestershire to Wellingborough, where planning permission has been granted for a new rail facility to be built.

The facility will be added on to Lafarge’s existing distribution centre in the town, which currently only has road access.

With long-term plans for signif-icant additional volumes of aggregates to be transported by rail, the new service will save up thousands of lorry journeys a year.

The new contract represents First GBRf’s largest direct aggregate contract to date and its length will secure the freight haulier’s future in the aggregate market for the long term.

National rail manager at Lafarge, John Carpenter, said: “We are pleased to sign the contract with GBRf and we look forward to a fruitful partnership over the coming years as we seek to move as much material as possible by rail.”

Neil Crossland, business develop-ment director at First GBRf, said: “At First GBRf we have a good track record in looking at a situation in an innov-ative way and seeing the possibilities rather than the problems involved in making the seemingly ‘impossible’ happen.

“We are delighted to be working with Lafarge to increase the range of modal options at Wellingborough from just road, to road and rail and to encourage new traffic onto the rails.”

The new contract represents First GBRf’s largest direct aggregate contract to date and its length will secure the freight haulier’s future in the aggregate market for the long term.

First GBRf, which recently invested in a new facility for its Peterborough train crew and ground staff, is one of the UK’s leading specialist rail freight companies, operating a wide ranging portfolio of intermodal and bulk traffic services in commodities such as coal, petrochemicals, mail and parcels, and construction materials.

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