{"id":133994,"date":"2024-09-27T16:47:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T06:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcargonews.com\/?p=49947"},"modified":"2024-09-27T16:47:10","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T06:47:10","slug":"freightliner-could-move-operations-to-accommodate-manchester-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=133994","title":{"rendered":"Freightliner could move operations to accommodate Manchester United"},"content":{"rendered":"

A controversial plan by the football club Manchester United, to annex a rail freight terminal, may just have taken a step towards an amicable outcome. The English Premiership club has its sights set on land adjacent to its massive but ageing stadium. Now, it has emerged that the current occupiers, Freightliner, may be willing to give up their rail terminal on the site.<\/p>\n

Old Trafford is synonymous with Manchester United football club. However, in the world of intermodal logistics, it’s in the premiership of rail freight terminals.<\/p>\n

Now, after revelations at this week\u2019s UK Labour Party Conference in nearby Liverpool, there\u2019s the possibility of the rail freight operator relocation its operations in the North West of England, along the line, to Liverpool. The outspoken metropolitan mayors, Andy Burnham and Liverpool\u2019s Steve Rotheram, have both been cited as actively working on securing the deal, which could benefit both cities.<\/p>\n

More services and less congestion<\/h2>\n

Jim Radcliffe, the chairman and CEO of chemical combine Ineos, and the principal owner of Manchester United, is behind plans for the football club to redevelop its Old Trafford estate.<\/p>\n

A land deal, currently under negotiation, could see the football club\u2019s neighbour, Freightliner, move their Old Trafford intermodal rail terminal, and relocate to a purpose-built facility at Parkside East in St Helens, a large town on the eastern edge of Liverpool. Logistics developer Tritax is reported to have done a closed doors deal to secure the necessary land at Parkside East.<\/p>\n

\"\"
UK rail operator Freightliner regularly hauls heavy express intermodal services. This one seen near Beattock Summit in Scotland on the West Coast Main Line.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The redevelopment of Old Trafford<\/a> has been stalled because of the unavailability of the land to the west of the stadium. Manchester United has historically been hemmed in by the industrial layout of the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Trafford Park was famously known as Britain\u2019s biggest single industrial area, built up with the convenient logistics of the Manchester Ship Canal and the associated docks<\/a> on its doorstep.<\/p>\n

The proposed move, which has been confirmed by Freightliner, could offer significant benefits to the modern rail freight and logistics sectors. Not least, the new site, at Parkside East, would, at a stroke, radically reduce the pressure on key infrastructure in Manchester.<\/p>\n

It may well relieve the chronic congestion in the notorious \u2018Castlefield Corridor\u2019<\/a>, a two-track section through a heavily urbanised part of central Manchester. The tracks are frequently overloaded with a mixture of freight and passenger traffic.<\/p>\n

Purpose built and freeport location<\/h2>\n

Speaking to a regional media source, Freightliner confirmed that it had taken an interest in land at Parkside East, with a view to establishing new intermodal facilities there. Freightliner, one of the UK\u2019s largest rail freight operators, is reportedly operating its Old Trafford base at full capacity, moving up to twenty trains a day.<\/p>\n

The new site at Parkside East would allow Freightliner to handle many more services. The site\u2019s strategic location, nearby the expanding Liverpool docks, and within a designated freeport, makes the transfer an attractive proposition. Negations could well be centred on the \u2018transfer fee\u2019 paid by the football club.<\/p>\n

For the logistics sector, the potential relocation offers improved efficiency in goods movement. Parkside East, where Freightliner reportedly is planning over 230,000 square metres of rail terminal space, is well-placed to accommodate future growth in freight volumes, for both domestic and international trade.<\/p>\n

The relocation would also open up capacity on the Liverpool-Manchester rail line, currently constrained by freight traffic, allowing for expanded passenger services and easing congestion through Warrington, a choke point on the West Coast Main Line, Europe\u2019s busiest mixed traffic railway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK rail operator Freightliner is in negotiations with Manchester United to allow the football club to annex their intermodal terminal for expansion plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1931,2366,6727,1732,471,10935,13600,1433,9482,10936],"tags":[12159],"class_list":["post-133994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freightliner","category-liverpool","category-manchester-united","category-multimodal","category-news","category-old-trafford","category-parkside-east","category-rail","category-st-helens","category-trafford-park","tag-world-cargo-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133994"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134131,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133994\/revisions\/134131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}