{"id":193744,"date":"2025-04-01T16:26:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T06:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcargonews.com\/?p=73206"},"modified":"2025-04-01T16:26:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T06:26:31","slug":"low-wagons-for-high-cubes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=193744","title":{"rendered":"Low wagons for high cubes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rail freight company Direct Rail Service (DRS) has begun a trial with ultra-low rail wagons to carry high cube containers between Teesport and Trafford Park in Manchester.<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s rail network, which celebrates its bicentennial this year, was never built with 9\u20196\u2019\u2019 high cube intermodal containers in mind. Currently, there is insufficient clearance along an important east-west axis between Teesport, on England\u2019s northeastern coast, and Trafford Park in Manchester to carry high cube boxes.<\/p>\n

The route is commercially attractive but has been difficult for rail freight to exploit. The infrastructure agency in Britain, Network Rail, is undertaking a multi-billion pound upgrade, which is expected to be completed by 2030. That\u2019s not quick enough for some shippers.<\/p>\n

DRS decided to take matters into their own hands and launch a service with lower-floor wagons. \u201cWe felt that was too long to wait when we considered the importance of rail freight\u201d, said Jo Edmenson from PD Ports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to partner with DRS to offer this new service, direct from the UK\u2019s sixth largest port to the heart of the North West. The route opens up a major new connection between the two regions and offers alternative means of shipping goods into the east coast of the UK and onwards, with the same true for exports,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Low rider on trial<\/h2>\n

A trial is now underway with ultra-low floor wagons – designated \u201cIDA\u201d –\u00a0 on revenue earning trial between Teesport and Trafford Park, Manchester. Rail freight company Direct Rail Service (DRS) operates the service, which it says is \u201cthe first on this route to use the ultra-low IDA wagons, which allow the use of high-cube containers.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the twelve-week trial (underway since 3 February), the trains are running five days a week from PD Ports terminal in Teesport, along the Transpennine route. \u201cThis trial offers a new route to customers who may not have considered rail before\u201d, said Gottfried Eymer, managing director for rail at DRS\u2019s parent company Nuclear Transport Solutions. \u201cIt is an open access service which will amalgamate different customers to one train, saving time and cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearance on the route has already been established as part of the approval process. The mechanical robustness of the wagons is the main focus, with a checklist of new technologies under scrutiny, from running gear to the carrying platform. So far, it\u2019s been green signals all the way.<\/p>\n

*This article first appeared in the March print issue of WorldCargo News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rail freight company Direct Rail Service (DRS) has begun a trial with ultra-low rail wagons to carry high cube containers between Teesport and Trafford Park\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"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":[13772,7322,15261,12154,12297,10936],"tags":[12159],"class_list":["post-193744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-direct-rail-service","category-drs","category-from-the-magazine","category-shipping-logistics","category-teesport","category-trafford-park","tag-world-cargo-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193744","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=193744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193783,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193744\/revisions\/193783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}