Plans for a rail freight terminal at Acton Grange, adjacent to the Manchester Ship Canal in northwest England, have resurfaced. According to local reporting, it has been 15 years since the initial approval. The proposals were lodged with the civic administration, Warrington Council, by the Manchester Ship Canal Company (controlled by Peel Ports). The plans now include a warehouse development alongside a reinstated rail link to the West Coast Main Line, one of the UK’s principal rail arteries.
The 40-acre site (just over 16ha), acquired by Peel in 2007, was originally intended for the refurbishment of a redundant canal berth and the reinstatement of a railway connection. While Warrington Council approved the plans in 2010, only the berth works were carried out. The revived proposals would see the rail link reintroduced, connecting Port Warrington to the West Coast Main Line, which runs north-south through the UK from London to Glasgow and serves as a key freight and passenger corridor linking the North West’s industrial centres with ports, distribution hubs, and the Midlands. The canal berth would also be extended to accommodate larger vessels.
Warehousing to complement rail
The proposals include consent for two warehouses totalling around 160,000 sq ft (14,864 sq m) on a 13.4-acre (5.4 ha) portion of the site. This complements Peel Ports’ broader strategy of port-centric warehousing and logistics along the Manchester Ship Canal. While Peel Ports has not issued a formal statement on the current plans, its own information page for the canal highlights Port Warrington as part of a multi-terminal strategy with planning permissions and warehousing potential, emphasising the site’s role in facilitating multimodal freight flows. The proposed investment is almost GB£350m.
If realised, Port Warrington would significantly enhance freight connectivity in northwest England by integrating canal, road, and rail links with terminal and warehousing facilities. The scheme aligns with Peel Ports’ long-term strategy of leveraging the Manchester Ship Canal as a backbone for multimodal logistics, offering new opportunities for rail freight in a region historically constrained by road congestion. The group also has another long-standing but only partly realised canal development, at Salford in Greater Manchester. It could also be part of the solutino to the issues surropunding an existing rail termnial at Trafford Park, which is threatened by a football stadium proposal.
Wider regional developments and initiatives
Port Warrington sits within a broader pattern of Peel-associated activity in the Warrington area. Their Countryside division has recently sought approval for 500 new homes at Peel Hall, part of a masterplan that could ultimately deliver 1,200 properties.
Elsewhere, the former coal-fired Fiddler’s Ferry Power Station (named for a village just west of Warrington) is being redeveloped by Peel subsidiaries Peel NRE (Northwest Regeneration Enterprise) and Peel L&P (Land & Property). Planning consent has been granted for the first phase of industrial and logistics space, with demolition plans submitted for the remaining structures. Although managed under a different Peel arm, these developments could benefit from the port project and enhance regional industrial and logistics infrastructure.
Peel Ports Group has also just become the first UK port operator to join the Construction Leadership Council’s “Co2nstructZero” programme. The initiative is the sector’s response to the UK Government’s plan for a “Green Industrial Revolution”, which was announced in 2020.