{"id":145312,"date":"2024-10-30T18:19:16","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=57492"},"modified":"2024-10-30T18:19:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:19:16","slug":"bow-bells-ring-for-east-london-rail-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=145312","title":{"rendered":"Bow bells ring for east London rail hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The London Olympics of 2012 is still developing, and rail freight is the last medal winner. The UK infrastructure agency Network Rail has been given the go-ahead for a 30-acre (12-hectare) industrial-led logistics campus at Bow Goods Yard in the historic East End of London. An outline master plan had been put forward earlier this year.<\/strong>
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The plan is to regenerate a large area of brownfield land at Bow Goods Yard, East London, into a rail freight campus and last-mile logistics hub. The London Legacy Development Corporation has unanimously approved the plan. Bow Goods Yard is the final parcel of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic legacy land, which has not yet been developed.<\/p>\n

Transition to green freight future<\/h2>\n

The proposals put forward by Network Rail Property is the agency\u2019s first independent planning submission. Under the industrial-led masterplan, nearly 300,000 square metres of floor space will be created, including heavy and light industrial space. \u201cBow Goods Yard has the potential to deliver a new centralised hub for Network Rail, accelerating London\u2019s transition to green freight future,\u201d said the proposal documents. \u201cTaking up to 90,000 HGV [heavy goods vehicle] movements a year away from the national road network, the masterplan will cut congestion and emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image: \u00a9 Network Rail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mixing of rail-served freight facilities and other uses is reminiscent of the mixed-use development that once characterised the heavily industrialised East End of London. A range of leisure uses are proposed, with the flexibility for up to 33,000m2 of \u201cdestination leisure\u201d supported by over 3000m2 of food and beverage space. As befits the legacy of the 2012 games, 5000m2 of sports pitches will complement existing facilities on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.<\/p>\n

5000 new jobs in sustainable freight<\/h2>\n

There is no denying that rail freight is the focus of the development. Bow Goods Yard is vital to London\u2019s construction sector, supplying over one million tonnes of aggregates annually. \u201cRail freight contributes \u00a32.5bn [\u20ac2.9bn] to the UK economy,\u201d says Network Rail in their submission. \u201cHubs such as Bow Goods Yard will be crucial to expanding sustainable freight as businesses switch to rail.<\/p>\n

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Bow Goods Yard map location. Image: \u00a9 OpenStreetMap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The speedy approval process<\/a> is a part of the special legislation brought forward as part of the Olympic legacy development<\/a>. Network Rail says that the development improves rail freight capacity and efficiency. They expect to consolidate operations by, for example, enclosing and screening a concrete-batching facility. This, says the agency, will enable an integrated last-mile logistics hub to be brought forward, with the scheme creating up to 5,000 new jobs.<\/p>\n

Heavy industry can co-exist in city<\/h2>\n

The area will see the introduction of 150 trees, green walls and green roofs – something historically lacking in the area. \u201cThe approval of this masterplan submitted by Network Rail Property is a major milestone\u00a0in repositioning the\u00a0property\u00a0business, said Robin Dobson, Group Property Director at Network Rail.\u201cTransforming\u00a0this strategically underutilised\u00a0freight\u00a0site into\u00a0the largest industrial and logistics campus\u00a0that\u00a0serves the whole of East London\u00a0is\u00a0central to\u00a0expanding rail freight capacity\u00a0and supporting the capital’s logistics market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently an isolated site, large parts of Bow Goods Yard are not accessible to the local community. A series of green open spaces will be created, adding to the Olympic regeneration area. \u201cThe result is a masterplan showing that heavy industry can successfully co-exist with other functions in a city,\u201d claims Network Rail. Older residents, who remember the days of the East End in its industrial heyday, will say that\u2019s less a regeneration, and more of a restoration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The London Olympics of 2012 is still developing, and rail freight is the last medal winner. The UK infrastructure agency Network Rail has been given\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":52841,"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":[9535,14207,343,759,14208,14204,78,47,85],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-145312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bow-goods-yard","category-east-end","category-infrastructure","category-london","category-network-rail-property","category-olympic-park","category-rail-freight","category-rail-news","category-uk","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145312","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=145312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145450,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145312\/revisions\/145450"}],"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=145312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}