Rail Freight Flows and News UK

[matt99001]

Anyone know what's DB Cargo are doing with 0Z50 and 0Z53? Loco movements planned all this week. I assume its route learning or driver refresher training.

 

[stantheman]

Anyone know what’s happened to the new Inverness to Dalcross extension of the Tesco train , hasn’t run this week or last ?

 

[Freightmaster]

Anyone know what’s happened to the new Inverness to Dalcross extension of the Tesco train , hasn’t run this week or last ?

Summer holiday factory shutdown?

 

[stantheman]

Summer holiday factory shutdown?

Ran today

 

[Adrian Barr]

GBRF have run a scrap train out of Beeston today - 6V55 15:25 to Cardiff Docks (for the Ward Recycling terminal, not the steelworks at Tremorfa). Empties arrived from Doncaster Down Decoy as 4Z56, with 66771 + 24 JNAs

As far as I know this is the first train out of Beeston for a while - I think DB Cargo last worked a train from there (to Cardiff Celsa) in 2021.

I've not seen the Burton to Cardiff scrap service run for a while, so maybe this is a replacement service of sorts. Beeston was formerly operated by Sims Metals (later Unimetals, which went into liquidation), but the Ward Recycling website suggests they may have taken over the Beeston site, judging from the address of their Nottingham location: https://www.ward.com/location/nottingham/

Anyone know what's DB Cargo are doing with 0Z50 and 0Z53? Loco movements planned all this week. I assume its route learning or driver refresher training.

It was route learning of some sort, yes. On Wednesday it ran from Didcot to Avonmouth and back via Bath Spa and Filton, then on Thursday and Friday it did a shorter run from Didcot to Bristol Parkway and back, out via Bath Spa and back via Hullavington.

 

[Freightmaster]

GBRF have run a scrap train out of Beeston today - 6V55 15:25 to Cardiff Docks (for the Ward Recycling terminal, not the steelworks at Tremorfa). Empties arrived from Doncaster Down Decoy as 4Z56, with 66771 + 24 JNAs

As far as I know this is the first train out of Beeston for a while - I think DB Cargo last worked a train from there (to Cardiff Celsa) in 2021.

I've heard that the service from Lincoln Terrace may also restart before long.

I understand that DB have lost all the Cardiff scrap traffic to GBRf, so the existing Rotherham
and Sunderland flows will presumably transfer to GB at some point.



MARK

 

[Adrian Barr]

I understand that DB have lost all the Cardiff scrap traffic to GBRf, so the existing Rotherham
and Sunderland flows will presumably transfer to GB at some point.

Meanwhile in the midlands, DB have been running some scrap trains from Kingsbury and Saltley to Liverpool EMR which were previously GBRF-hauled. I think GBRF are still working the trains from Swindon and Attercliffe to Liverpool.

 

[Boston Poacher]

Hi all. Does anyone have any clue what this will be? Unsure whether it is worth going down to see it. Just for reference, there have been piles of track and ballast at Hubberts since the track renewal in December last year. Also, Swineshead Bridge L/C is shut that night for network rail works and it isn't the annual test. Curious if anyone has any ideas. Many thanks.

 

[Intercity_225]

Hi all. Does anyone have any clue what this will be? Unsure whether it is worth going down to see it. Just for reference, there have been piles of track and ballast at Hubberts since the track renewal in December last year. Also, Swineshead Bridge L/C is shut that night for network rail works and it isn't the annual test. Curious if anyone has any ideas. Many thanks.

I'm going to guess it's an engineering train for a possession.

 

[Adrian Barr]

Does anyone have any clue what this will be?

As above - engineering train. Should be a top & tail rail discharge train. Looks like 66849 will be on it. 70812 is also at Doncaster so could be the second loco.

 

[matt99001]

GBRF have run a scrap train out of Beeston today - 6V55 15:25 to Cardiff Docks (for the Ward Recycling terminal, not the steelworks at Tremorfa). Empties arrived from Doncaster Down Decoy as 4Z56, with 66771 + 24 JNAs

As far as I know this is the first train out of Beeston for a while - I think DB Cargo last worked a train from there (to Cardiff Celsa) in 2021.

I've not seen the Burton to Cardiff scrap service run for a while, so maybe this is a replacement service of sorts. Beeston was formerly operated by Sims Metals (later Unimetals, which went into liquidation), but the Ward Recycling website suggests they may have taken over the Beeston site, judging from the address of their Nottingham location: https://www.ward.com/location/nottingham/



It was route learning of some sort, yes. On Wednesday it ran from Didcot to Avonmouth and back via Bath Spa and Filton, then on Thursday and Friday it did a shorter run from Didcot to Bristol Parkway and back, out via Bath Spa and back via Hullavington.

Thanks, i wonder if its route familiarisation for the domestic waste that travels along that path to SERC in Avonmouth (Severnside Sita), as thats the only route that DB operate.

 

[EastWest]

Thanks, i wonder if its route familiarisation for the domestic waste that travels along that path to SERC in Avonmouth (Severnside Sita), as thats the only route that DB operate.

There have been similar 0Z56 and 0Z57 workings between Didcot T.C. and Landor Street Jn yesterday and today, so I wonder if these might be linked to 0Z50 and 0Z53?

 

[HST125Scorton]

There was some news going about today saying that GBRf have lost all the Biomass work to DB Cargo with them set to take over March/April 2027 does anyone here have more info on it?.

 

[EastWest]

GBRF have run a scrap train out of Beeston today - 6V55 15:25 to Cardiff Docks (for the Ward Recycling terminal, not the steelworks at Tremorfa). Empties arrived from Doncaster Down Decoy as 4Z56, with 66771 + 24 JNAs

As far as I know this is the first train out of Beeston for a while - I think DB Cargo last worked a train from there (to Cardiff Celsa) in 2021.

I've not seen the Burton to Cardiff scrap service run for a while, so maybe this is a replacement service of sorts. Beeston was formerly operated by Sims Metals (later Unimetals, which went into liquidation), but the Ward Recycling website suggests they may have taken over the Beeston site, judging from the address of their Nottingham location: https://www.ward.com/location/nottingham/

There was another Beeston to Cardiff Docks GBRF working today, empties from Wellingborough Up TC on this occasion.

 

[Rail Ranger]

Drax Power Station goes to part-time generation from April 2027 due to a major reduction in Government subsidy so the quantity of biomass transported to Drax will drop dramatically. DB already operates the Immingham-Drax flow. A poster on WNXX says that biomass will still be imported through Liverpool Docks.

 

[Adrian Barr]

There was some news going about today saying that GBRf have lost all the Biomass work to DB Cargo with them set to take over March/April 2027 does anyone here have more info on it?.

My understanding is that DB will retain the Immingham - Drax flow (and also Hull - Drax which runs occasionally) and will take over the Liverpool - Drax trains from GBRF. I'm not sure about the Tyne Dock - Drax flow.

As far as I know, the GBRF biomass flow from Tyne Dock to Lynemouth shouldn't be affected by the Drax contract.

 

[Rail Ranger]

The Government subsidy to Lynemouth Power Station is also being halved from 1st April 2027: Lynemouth Power Station: signature of low-carbon dispatchable Contract for Difference (LCD CfD) - summary - GOV.UK https://share.google/VbIkfQSersILxzL83
I heard talk that Lynemouth was looking at possibly reverting to coal-fired generation. I suspect that that is rather unrealistic.

 

[Oxfordblues]

So Class-99 electric-haulage of biomass trains between Olive Mount Jn and Miles Platting seems unlikely now.

 

[66701GBRF]

Not sure if it's been mentioned already but all GBRf Drax workings transfer to DB next March.

 

[Wavertreelad]

MSC circulated on social media today an update on the UK domestic network.




https://www.msc.com/en/local-inform...nOOfP4SDlmRrdNY_P4_aem_FTC2zoMfhZwrofi2L0i1Sg

If you click to the Import Availability Haulage tab on the page you can view in realtime the availablity of capacity on individual routes from each port which whilst not restricted to just rail availability it does gives an indication of the popularity or otherwise of individual combinations.

 

[matt99001]

Many thanks Wavertreelad, a shame that there isn't better use of the rail connections at Portbury as it is a busy port and only has an infrequent TATA Steel path ongoing (alongside Class 99 inductions).

 

[Solweytracker]

Heavy Haul Rail have provided an update in this article. A key point:
'To strengthen customer focus and improve agility, Heavy Haul Rail has reorganised into three dedicated business units: North, South, and Rail Industry Services (RIS). The North and South business units, based in Doncaster and Swindon respectively, are aligned to customers and services operating within those regions. The RIS business unit, based in Crewe and Leeds, specialises in Network Rail infrastructure support, possession work, and heavy engineering maintenance activities.'

Moving what matters - Rail Engineer

Listen to this article Earlier this year, Heavy Haul Rail launched as a new, independent business in the UK rail freight market following the sale of Freightliner UK’s Intermodal Logistics division. As a standalone company, Heavy Haul Rail is now focused entirely on bulk freight, supporting the...

www.railengineer.co.uk

 

[Wavertreelad]

Many thanks Wavertreelad, a shame that there isn't better use of the rail connections at Portbury as it is a busy port and only has an infrequent TATA Steel path ongoing (alongside Class 99 inductions).

The problem with Portbury is that it's tends to be overshadowed by it's proximity to Southampton which since 1972 has enjoyed direct Asia Europe services. This attracted growth by many Japanese companies along the M4 corridor and into South Wales in the early years, and in some case these were subsidiaries or sister companies of the shipping lines. With many of the locations within 100 miles from Southampton, most of these companies could be served more efficiently and cheaper by road added to which export containers from these business would also be routed through the Japanese lines as they always have transport in the area. Whilst not ignoring this traffic the European lines concentrated on moving thier imports and exports from Southampton by rail to the North, South East and I believe South Wales as well by road to the West Country. In England and Scotland OCL and ACTA had built their Containerases which were all served by direct trains to and from Southampton or Tilbury by the start of container operations in Southampton.

By the time Portbury opened in 1977 the inland distribution flows had been well established leaving Portbury with limited usually locally specific cargo flows to handle, and apart for a short period in the early 1980's when Southampton was on strike was unable to secure mainline services. With the introduction of post panamax ships in the 1990's any hope of attracting major deepsea service started to disappear as the ships could not pass through the lock to enter the terminal.

Fast forward to more recent times, MSC did introduce a service to and from Greece/Turkey a couple of years ago using 4500/5000 teu vessels, but the call was dropped after several months and calls returned to various incarnations of feeder services linking Antwerp, Southampton, Montoir and/or Dublin or Cork usually with vessels between 868 and 1200 teu. These calls will largely be to cater for specific local industries rather than the wider national market so hence there is little need for intermodal rail transport to and from the terminal.

It's also worth mentioning that both Maersk and MSC have traditionally preferred to avoid using Southampton. Following Maersk's purchase of P&O Nedloyd in 2005, which incorporated OCL and ACTA Maersk moved many of the services which had called at Southampton since 1972 to Felixstowe, if I remember correctly leaving one direct service. A similar approach was adopted when Maersk joined forces with MSC 2016 with their 2M agreement which ended in February 2025. This resulted in Maersk joining Haapg Lloyd and initially were going to operate the Asia Europe Services from Felixstowe, Transatlantic services from Southampton and Middle East and Indian Subcontinent services from London Gateway Port. However, MSC's purchase of Maritime Transport Limited left Hapag who used Maritime extensively for it's UK distribution with insufficient road and capacity from Felixstowe, so hence the decision to move Asia Europe Services to London Gateway Port. Following the demise of 2M, MSC set up it's own independent global network but were able to conclude a deal with ONE, Yang Ming and HMM, known as the Premier Alliance (PA), for them to take slots on MSC services to and from Europe as they lacked sufficient of their own capacity to mount the same level of service previously enjoyed when the three PA lines partnered Hapag LLoyd in the Aliiance. The agreement between MSC and PA lasts for five years and is restricted to the Asia Europe trades, as PA, I suspect much to the surprise of MSC signed a similar deal with CMA CGM for it's Transatlantic and Pacific Services.

As a result Maersk and Hapag continue to use Southampton for Transatlantic services and the odd diversion whilst the majority of MSC containers moving through Southampton arrive or depart on PA vessels on Asia Europe services whilst the MSC operated feeder service which calls Portbury connects other ports on the global network via Antwerp and/or Le Havre. The MSC PA agreement is due to last until 2030 by which time both parties will have increased their available capacity, so I would not be surprised if MSC retained at least as single Asia Europe service at Southampton to compete with PA and the CMA CGM/Evergreen/Cosco/OOCL alliance that also uses Southampton. As a consequence I see little long term major improvements to services to Portbury as Southampton will likely continue to dominate the region.

 

[BRX]

The problem with Portbury is that it's tends to be overshadowed by it's proximity to Southampton which since 1972 has enjoyed direct Asia Europe services. This attracted growth by many Japanese companies along the M4 corridor and into South Wales in the early years, and in some case these were subsidiaries or sister companies of the shipping lines. With many of the locations within 100 miles from Southampton, most of these companies could be served more efficiently and cheaper by road added to which export containers from these business would also be routed through the Japanese lines as they always have transport in the area. Whilst not ignoring this traffic the European lines concentrated on moving thier imports and exports from Southampton by rail to the North, South East and I believe South Wales as well by road to the West Country. In England and Scotland OCL and ACTA had built their Containerases which were all served by direct trains to and from Southampton or Tilbury by the start of container operations in Southampton.

By the time Portbury opened in 1977 the inland distribution flows had been well established leaving Portbury with limited usually locally specific cargo flows to handle, and apart for a short period in the early 1980's when Southampton was on strike was unable to secure mainline services. With the introduction of post panamax ships in the 1990's any hope of attracting major deepsea service started to disappear as the ships could not pass through the lock to enter the terminal.

Fast forward to more recent times, MSC did introduce a service to and from Greece/Turkey a couple of years ago using 4500/5000 teu vessels, but the call was dropped after several months and calls returned to various incarnations of feeder services linking Antwerp, Southampton, Montoir and/or Dublin or Cork usually with vessels between 868 and 1200 teu. These calls will largely be to cater for specific local industries rather than the wider national market so hence there is little need for intermodal rail transport to and from the terminal.

It's also worth mentioning that both Maersk and MSC have traditionally preferred to avoid using Southampton. Following Maersk's purchase of P&O Nedloyd in 2005, which incorporated OCL and ACTA Maersk moved many of the services which had called at Southampton since 1972 to Felixstowe, if I remember correctly leaving one direct service. A similar approach was adopted when Maersk joined forces with MSC 2016 with their 2M agreement which ended in February 2025. This resulted in Maersk joining Haapg Lloyd and initially were going to operate the Asia Europe Services from Felixstowe, Transatlantic services from Southampton and Middle East and Indian Subcontinent services from London Gateway Port. However, MSC's purchase of Maritime Transport Limited left Hapag who used Maritime extensively for it's UK distribution with insufficient road and capacity from Felixstowe, so hence the decision to move Asia Europe Services to London Gateway Port. Following the demise of 2M, MSC set up it's own independent global network but were able to conclude a deal with ONE, Yang Ming and HMM, known as the Premier Alliance (PA), for them to take slots on MSC services to and from Europe as they lacked sufficient of their own capacity to mount the same level of service previously enjoyed when the three PA lines partnered Hapag LLoyd in the Aliiance. The agreement between MSC and PA lasts for five years and is restricted to the Asia Europe trades, as PA, I suspect much to the surprise of MSC signed a similar deal with CMA CGM for it's Transatlantic and Pacific Services.

As a result Maersk and Hapag continue to use Southampton for Transatlantic services and the odd diversion whilst the majority of MSC containers moving through Southampton arrive or depart on PA vessels on Asia Europe services whilst the MSC operated feeder service which calls Portbury connects other ports on the global network via Antwerp and/or Le Havre. The MSC PA agreement is due to last until 2030 by which time both parties will have increased their available capacity, so I would not be surprised if MSC retained at least as single Asia Europe service at Southampton to compete with PA and the CMA CGM/Evergreen/Cosco/OOCL alliance that also uses Southampton. As a consequence I see little long term major improvements to services to Portbury as Southampton will likely continue to dominate the region.

I wonder if we will ever see intermodal by rail from Thamesport again, or whether that's been thoroughly killed off by London Gateway.

 

[Wavertreelad]

I wonder if we will ever see intermodal by rail from Thamesport again, or whether that's been thoroughly killed off by London Gateway.

In short I very much doubt it.

When Thamesport opened in 1990 Evergreen were the first customer to the new terminal using vessels of about 2798/3428 teu with at least two calls a week, by 1993 they introduced their R-Class which were 4229/5300 teu, from 2005 the S-Class were introduced at 7000 teu whilst from 2012 the L-Class ships were introduced to the Asia Europe Trade. These vessels had a capacity ranging from 8500 teu to 9532 teu and were the beginning of the end for Thamesport as in 2013 Evergreen left the port and returned on Felixstowe.

South Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) with it's partners had joined Evergreen using Thamesport in the mid 1990's as I seem to recall Southampton was congested at the time using vessels of about 5000 teu, but with ten years had started deploying 8600 teu units before going to 10000 teu units around 2010 and this is when the problems started as the vessels could not berth on every tide due to insufficient clearance under the ship when it was fully laden, resulting in berthing delays and schedule unreliability. As a consequence, HMM moved back to Southampton ahead of Evergreen who had obviously noted HMM difficulties with their slightly larger ships and probably knowing that they thier next orders for the trade would 13000-18000 teu units.

This left the only other main user of Thamesport Hapag Lloyd using the terminal. Hapag had moved its Transatlantic services to the Kent terminal from Southampton in the 1990's hailing the port's advanced technology etc. Although Hapag operated all the services, these services were operated with various partners including HMM, Yang Ming, OOCL, MOL, and NYK who primarily operated out Southampton due to their Asia Europe services. By 2013 Hapag was the sole user of Thamesport with four services, using mainly ships of 2500 - 5000teu but unfortunately due to scheduling and berthing commitments on mainland Europe all four services were scheduled to arrive and depart from Thamesport over a 48 hour period probably exchanging a couple of thousand boxes in total at most over the period. For the rest of week apart from landside arrivals and deliveries the port was largely inactive, the intermodal services were withdrawn as the numbers dwindled with the lines having to shunt boxes to Tilbury if they were to move by rail. This created another problem because the largest container road hauiage in the Thamesport area was Maritime Transport, but they like many others in the area had to supplement their capacity from their Tilbury depot, resulting in additional costs for Thames tolls and drivers hours getting in and out of the port, especially if there were any delays on the single road to the site. In October 2013 Hapag withdrew it's Transatlantic services from Thamesport and moved back to Southampton leaving Thamesport with no deep sea services, before moving some of them again in 2018 to London Gateway Port when it opened.

Thamesport remains open but container operations are restricted to short sea operations to and from North European and Iberia ports. The Iberian traffic is mainly containerised fresh produce northbound which is distributed throughout the south of England by the various companies who previously used to handle the produce that used to arrive on conventional reefer ships at Sheerness and to a limited extent Dover. The containerships deployed on these services are usually in the 868teu to 1300 teu range so like Portbury the volumes are unlikely to generate sufficient volumes to sustain intermodal services, especially as much of the distribution is also completed by either specialist carriers to feed into the retailers main logistics hubs in the London Gateway/Tilbury area for onward delivery by road/rail.

 

[Amos390]

Just saw this schedule get made, not a service I’ve seen before, is this part of a new flow or something DB are experimenting with or is it simply a diversion due to a closed line somewhere?

Train 6E52 Liverpool Euro Metal(Mdhc) to Lincoln Terrace C.H.S. Wed 02/09/2026 | Rail Record

Live Train Times for Train 6E52 Liverpool Euro Metal(Mdhc) to Lincoln Terrace C.H.S. departing on Wed 02/09/2026 | Rail Record

live.rail-record.co.uk

 

[Freightmaster]

Just saw this schedule get made, not a service I’ve seen before, is this part of a new flow...

It's the resumption of long lost scrap traffic:

Lincoln Terrace Scrap Train

All throughout next week, there is driver training from Scunthorpe anchor sidings to Lincoln terrace sidings, https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:R57851/2026-08-24/detailed https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:R57852/2026-08-24/detailed pressuming this means the scrap train...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[geordieblue]

Just saw this schedule get made, not a service I’ve seen before, is this part of a new flow or something DB are experimenting with or is it simply a diversion due to a closed line somewhere?

Train 6E52 Liverpool Euro Metal(Mdhc) to Lincoln Terrace C.H.S. Wed 02/09/2026 | Rail Record

Live Train Times for Train 6E52 Liverpool Euro Metal(Mdhc) to Lincoln Terrace C.H.S. departing on Wed 02/09/2026 | Rail Record

live.rail-record.co.uk

DB were route learning for this last week - there are also schedules in for next week between Toton and Handsworth EMR. I’d assume this is the FOCs trying to get back into the scrap market before the Port Talbot electric arc furnace comes online - that will require huge quantities of scrap. Good news for railfreight though

 

[BRX]

In short I very much doubt it.

When Thamesport opened in 1990 Evergreen were the first customer to the new terminal using vessels of about 2798/3428 teu with at least two calls a week, by 1993 they introduced their R-Class which were 4229/5300 teu, from 2005 the S-Class were introduced at 7000 teu whilst from 2012 the L-Class ships were introduced to the Asia Europe Trade. These vessels had a capacity ranging from 8500 teu to 9532 teu and were the beginning of the end for Thamesport as in 2013 Evergreen left the port and returned on Felixstowe.

South Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) with it's partners had joined Evergreen using Thamesport in the mid 1990's as I seem to recall Southampton was congested at the time using vessels of about 5000 teu, but with ten years had started deploying 8600 teu units before going to 10000 teu units around 2010 and this is when the problems started as the vessels could not berth on every tide due to insufficient clearance under the ship when it was fully laden, resulting in berthing delays and schedule unreliability. As a consequence, HMM moved back to Southampton ahead of Evergreen who had obviously noted HMM difficulties with their slightly larger ships and probably knowing that they thier next orders for the trade would 13000-18000 teu units.

This left the only other main user of Thamesport Hapag Lloyd using the terminal. Hapag had moved its Transatlantic services to the Kent terminal from Southampton in the 1990's hailing the port's advanced technology etc. Although Hapag operated all the services, these services were operated with various partners including HMM, Yang Ming, OOCL, MOL, and NYK who primarily operated out Southampton due to their Asia Europe services. By 2013 Hapag was the sole user of Thamesport with four services, using mainly ships of 2500 - 5000teu but unfortunately due to scheduling and berthing commitments on mainland Europe all four services were scheduled to arrive and depart from Thamesport over a 48 hour period probably exchanging a couple of thousand boxes in total at most over the period. For the rest of week apart from landside arrivals and deliveries the port was largely inactive, the intermodal services were withdrawn as the numbers dwindled with the lines having to shunt boxes to Tilbury if they were to move by rail. This created another problem because the largest container road hauiage in the Thamesport area was Maritime Transport, but they like many others in the area had to supplement their capacity from their Tilbury depot, resulting in additional costs for Thames tolls and drivers hours getting in and out of the port, especially if there were any delays on the single road to the site. In October 2013 Hapag withdrew it's Transatlantic services from Thamesport and moved back to Southampton leaving Thamesport with no deep sea services, before moving some of them again in 2018 to London Gateway Port when it opened.

Thamesport remains open but container operations are restricted to short sea operations to and from North European and Iberia ports. The Iberian traffic is mainly containerised fresh produce northbound which is distributed throughout the south of England by the various companies who previously used to handle the produce that used to arrive on conventional reefer ships at Sheerness and to a limited extent Dover. The containerships deployed on these services are usually in the 868teu to 1300 teu range so like Portbury the volumes are unlikely to generate sufficient volumes to sustain intermodal services, especially as much of the distribution is also completed by either specialist carriers to feed into the retailers main logistics hubs in the London Gateway/Tilbury area for onward delivery by road/rail.

Thanks for this, a good reminder that it wasn't as simple a story as Gateway opening and taking away trade.