The UK’s push toward decarbonising freight moves on relentlessly. However, if modal shift is to truly play a larger part, it needs more support at the policy level.
While the road truck remains pre-eminent, there is constant pressure for modal shift to both rail and waterborne transport. There is mounting pressure on supply chains to reduce carbon emissions, ease Britain’s road congestion, and improve resilience. Policymakers and industry leaders point to intermodal logistics as a critical part of the solution. While these ambitions grow, so does the pressure on ports, logistics hubs and transport infrastructure. Bottlenecks, inadequate funding, mixed incentives, and a rail network under considerable strain are all common themes. Rectifying this “modal shift mismatch” is the key to transition within the UK freight sector.
Shopkeepers and shippers
WorldCargo News has previously reported on the British relationship with container traffic. It is an affair that continues to grow. Ports around this island nation continue to expand. London Gateway, Liverpool and Grangemouth are just some of the deep sea and short sea ports to recently expand capacity. New inland warehousing and container handling developments are announced almost weekly. Yet Britain still has a shortage of both.
The “Logistics Golden Triangle” around England’s East Midlands remains a focal point for developments, with new facilities like Northampton Gateway and expansion at DIRFT Daventry both recently coming online. Other inland hubs, like St Albans, have been given the go-ahead, albeit in this example, only after a long and bitter opposition. While all three examples are typically well served by road, they share what has become an imperative for logistics development in Great Britain. They all have dedicated rail freight infrastructure built in. Rail remains the poster child of decarbonisation, often cited in government press releases and developers’ prospectuses.
The train to sustainability
The logic is quite compelling. Rail freight generates far less CO₂ per tonne than road transport, and shifting containers away from the ports on rail wagons reduces reliance on long-haul road trucking. Industry rhetoric increasingly points toward rail and intermodal freight as central to a greener, more sustainable logistics ecosystem. Shipping, ports, rail and trucking companies have all downsized their carbon footprints.
Port operator DP World has taken a lead in this respect. It launched an integrated modal shift initiative at Southampton in September 2023, aimed squarely at road container traffic. The port offers a bounty to shippers if they move their import containers by rail (some terms and conditions apply). By March 2025, the port operator announced that it had moved 100,000 containers by rail under the programme. That helped raise the share of containers transported out of the terminal by rail from 21% at launch to over 30%. DP World has a goal of 40% this year.
That surge has already delivered tangible benefits. According to DP World, the shift has removed more than 25,000 tonnes of CO₂e from supply chains, diverted approximately eight million truck miles off UK roads, and helped cut 64,300 lorry journeys in its first year. That hasn’t stopped the company from further developing its truck-based container handling facilities. Opened in 2025, Southampton now boasts a streamlined truck gateline, a comfortable amenity building for drivers, and parking with EV charging for over 100 articulated trucks. The port discreetly welcomes drivers on a rest break, even if their load is not destined for the port.
Infrastructure Constraints
Such largess is not available to the rail industry, which is designed to run on a far more prescribed timetable. Nevertheless, there is plenty of optimism within the rail freight community. Freightliner, which recently sold its UK intermodal rail business to French shipping giants CMA CGM, has placed an order for new rolling stock. The company is adding 150 intermodal wagons, capable of carrying a single 40ft container.
The decision reflects the dominance of the 40ft container. Previous rolling stock, designed for loading with 1x1TEU plus 1x2TEU, is often seen running with an empty berth. The new wagons, despite being shorter, will allow for better train loading. Also, by virtue of their shorter wheelbase, they should be more versatile – potentially allowing greater penetration into the often gauge-restricted British railway network. The order is also a welcome boost for UK manufacturing. The wagons will be built in the English East Midlands by WH Davis, the only indigenous and independent freight rolling stock manufacturer still active in the UK.
Nevertheless, a fleet of new wagons, no matter how versatile they may be, will not solve Britain’s perennial issue of capacity constraints on the rail network. In the UK, the tracks are shared with what is predominantly a passenger railway operation. The 600 freight trains that operate daily do so alongside more than 20,000 passenger movements. Capacity issues are almost always solved with the passenger market in mind, and congestion pinch points that adversely affect freight traffic are often at the back of the queue for remedial work.
An example of this is the connection serving Felixstowe – a location that is now so busy with container trains that it is often described as a rail freight terminal with a port attached. In that nickname, there is some merit. Felixstowe is indeed Britain’s busiest rail freight terminal, dispatching upwards of thirty trains a day. However, if trains from that east coast port are to access the Logistics Golden Triangle of the English Midlands, or the large markets to the North, they have to pass through Ely, a tangled junction of five routes. Ely is also famous in the road logistics sector for bridge strikes – the British ‘pastime’ of attempting to drive under the flat Fen Country rail bridges, none of which were built with intermodal containers in mind.
Network Rail, the UK government agency for infrastructure, has a detailed plan, called the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement programme. At a stroke, EACE will comprehensively recast the track layout, and solve the capacity issues around the town. It will provide up to four extra freight paths an hour (from the current six). That is a step change improvement, which would radically amend the intermodal rail freight profile of the whole country. Just one thing is missing from the plan: funding.
Frustrated over train paths
John Bailey is the managing director of intermodal for Maritime Transport, now a subsidiary of MSC, and another integrated logistics company that makes extensive use of Felixstowe. He undoubtedly feels the frustration of constrained train paths, and would like to do more with Maritime’s rail fleet. “Despite its advantages and increasing role in UK supply chains, rail freight faces significant constraints,” he said in a report to the industry representative body, the Rail Freight Group. “The UK’s rail network is largely designed for passenger services, meaning freight often competes for space on key routes. Limited capacity, insufficient electrification, loading gauge restrictions, and a shortage of strategic rail freight terminals further hinder growth. To achieve a true modal shift – moving more freight from road to rail – investment in the network is essential.”
Modern achievements
Maritime Transport is a relative newcomer to rail-borne intermodal logistics. Since its first serious entry into the market in 2019, the company’s share of containers moved by rail has gone from 6% to over 20% in 2024. Today, it operates more than 30 daily services through a network of open-access, multi-user rail freight terminals and container storage depots.
John Bailey cites East Midlands Gateway (EMG) as an example of what modern intermodal logistics can achieve. “The completion of EMG in 2020, part of the UK’s only inland Freeport, has provided a critical hub for intermodal operations,” he explained. The well-connected site, in the Logistics Golden Triangle, is adjacent to a busy airport and well served by road and rail. The rail terminal is designed to accommodate the UK’s longest freight trains (775m), and the terminal moves an average of 10,000 containers per month. A second phase of the project included a new HGV (heavy goods vehicle) yard, and 3,000 TEU of storage capacity. It’s important enough to also have a purpose-built, four-storey headquarters for Maritime’s intermodal division.
Maritime has been a principal player in the modal shift to rail. “More recently, we completed a rail freight terminal at SEGRO Logistics Park Northampton, directly connected to the West Coast Main Line (WCML) and capable of handling up to sixteen trains per day when at full capacity,” Bailey explained. “In 2022, we completed a multi-million-pound regeneration project at Manchester, transforming the site into a high-capacity terminal capable of handling nine trains per day,” he added.
That Manchester site has been adjacent to the news lately. Indeed, it is adjacent to another intermodal terminal – one operated by Freightliner. If the plan to redevelop the Old Trafford football stadium goes ahead, Freightliner would move out. A new logistics park would be established on a site approximately midway between Manchester and Liverpool (about 30km from each city). That new logistics facility would benefit from the extensive motorway network locally. It would be within metres of the West Coast Main Line – the busiest mixed traffic rail route in Europe. Such is the intermodal demand, it’s likely that the project will be approved anyway.
Shipping lanes meet rail lines
Nearby all of the proposed sites, there is also another busy highway – the Manchester Ship Canal. The manmade channel that connects Liverpool and Salford (Manchester) would not only play a critical role in any redevelopment of Old Trafford (the stadium sits on its most easterly basin), but it is also on the cusp of a new lease on life, as an intermodal waterway.
Peel Ports, the Liverpool headquartered consortium, already has a partly realised facility at Port Salford – an eventual tri-mode terminal (rail, road and canal) which currently handles a variety of cargoes, including some intermodal inland waterway traffic. Plans have also been resurrected to breathe life back into a jetty at Warrington, also on the Ship Canal. Plans now being actively promoted include reinstating a rail link directly from the West Coast Main Line, and integrating it with new warehousing and logistics buildings alongside.
Modernised warehousing
The proposals for Port Warrington draw attention to Britain’s ageing warehousing inventory. Many sheds are out of modern specification and no longer meet regulatory standards, principally over environmental impact. This is being addressed; for example, the SEGRO Logistics Park Northampton (also known as Northampton Gateway) is planned to deliver around 5,000,000 sq ft (about 468,000m²) of modern logistics and warehouse space once fully developed. The scale of the project is immense. A train driver emerging from the rail tunnel (built especially for the site) is not able to see the road entrance – it’s over the horizon.
A similar story is playing out on the Mersey. Peel Ports Liverpool continues a logistics-fuelled renaissance of the historic riverfront. Their tenants, Maritime Transport, completed a multi-million-pound container storage facility just over a year ago. It has storage capacity for around 2,000 TEU, with reefer points, and offers round-the-clock operations. In the south, at DP World London Gateway, intermodal handling is a prominent part of that container port’s expansion. The adjacent logistics park is as vital to the port as the additional berths currently under construction.
Economic growth
Work is also underway at Mossend in Scotland, which is already connected with both Liverpool directly and London Gateway via Birmingham Hams Hall. Mossend has ambitions to become the biggest rail-served intermodal terminal in Scotland (usurping Grangemouth). The first steps have been made towards the complete 2.2 million sq ft (about 200,000m²) rail-served logistics park. However, the initial phase of the development has focused on increasing existing container handling capacity and replacing the primary rail line into the terminal. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-2026, with work phased to allow existing and future operations to continue without disruption.
In a generally moribund economic outlook for the UK, intermodal rail and logistics is proving a beacon of growth – despite the infrastructure constraints. According to the latest government-ratified figures from the Office of Rail and Road, intermodal maritime freight moved by rail increased by 8% in the year to 2024/25 – the highest recorded volume for six years. This validates industry claims that modal shift is possible. However, it also highlights the fragility of that shift, given the narrow margins of capacity in the rail network. Britain can boom, if the capacity to serve is installed. Otherwise, those logistics ambitions may well burst, and road haulage will be in renaissance.
Hydrogen by rail
Britain’s first shipment of hydrogen by rail took place on 3 December at Network Rail’s Test Tracks site in Tuxford, where freight operator Freightliner hauled a train of gas containers from Doncaster to High Marnham, in collaboration with energy partners GeoPura.
The shipment was part of a rail and energy industry innovation event showcasing several hydrogen initiatives, including the first re-engineered hydrogen-powered shunting locomotive. The event also demonstrated HPU (hydrogen power units), hydrogen-powered generators, lighting towers and support vehicles.“Network Rail’s site at Tuxford runs all the way to High Marnham, where it sits adjacent to HyMarnham Power, the UK’s largest green hydrogen production facility operated by GeoPura and JG Pears. Built on the site of a former coal-fired power station, HyMarnham Power is one of the world’s first rail-connected hydrogen production facilities. Network Rail’s Tuxford site will be the world’s first net-zero railway testing facility,” Network Rail said.
Network Rail noted that hydrogen is currently transported by road. It said the test marks a “major step towards the rail network becoming a ready-made hydrogen distribution system, a rolling pipeline, with connections to all major industrial and urban centres across Britain – proving the practical capability of rail to transport hydrogen at scale. Hydrogen will also be utilised to decarbonise wider rail operations, from construction to ongoing maintenance and off-grid operations”.
Leevan Finney, Network Rail’s engineering services director, added: “Rail is the greenest form of long-distance transport, and we, as an industry, are working hard to decarbonise transport and achieve net zero. For 200 years, the railway has connected communities and major industry across Britain. Today, the railway has the potential to be a strategic hydrogen distribution network in the future, as it has been for energy for many years.”
PAV Haulage lands at expanding London Gateway
Transport and logistics provider PAV Haulage is establishing a new long-term home at DP World’s London Gateway Logistics Park. It underlines the growing momentum behind one of the UK’s youngest intermodal hubs. From the first quarter of 2026, PAV Haulage will occupy a 94,000 sq ft (approximately 8,700m²) unit. The move includes provision for future expansion, creating additional capacity for HGV (truck) parking and operational growth.
“With this warehouse, we’re at the heart of smart logistics – and we’re only just getting started,” said Dean Mills, chief executive of PAV Haulage. “London Gateway is the perfect base for the scale and ambition we’re bringing to the industry.” The facility has been developed to DP World’s sustainability specifications and has achieved an EPC ‘A’ rating alongside a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ certification. Rooftop solar photovoltaic panels will provide renewable energy throughout the tenancy, reflecting the wider emphasis on low-carbon logistics across the site.
Alan Holland, chief executive of DP World London Gateway Logistics Park, said the deal reflected continued customer confidence in the site, supported by its strategic location, tri-modal connectivity and fast-track planning framework under a Local Development Order. It’s also within the designated Thames Freeport. The 9.25 million sq ft (around 859,000 square metres) logistics park is now more than half developed and supports thousands of jobs, with further growth planned as London Gateway’s role in UK intermodal logistics continues to deepen.
*This story first appeared in the January print issue of WorldCargo News.