{"id":360867,"date":"2026-02-02T18:10:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T08:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=69037"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T08:10:52","slug":"heavy-haul-rail-launched-with-words-from-the-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=360867","title":{"rendered":"Heavy Haul Rail launched with words from the chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s just typical of British transport. You wait all day for a new rail freight operator, and then two came along at once – and at least one man briefly had the keys to both in his hands. On Friday, the well-known railway professional Tim Shoveller moved out of the hot seat at Freightliner and not the chairman\u2019s office at Heavy Haul Rail.<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

He has not looked back since moving into the light of freight operations in 2023 (from the dark world of authorities and passenger operations). Tim Shoveller has glided over the points from the former Freightliner (now under new management) to the brand new entity of Heavy Haul Rail. If anyone expected that to be the prelude to taking a back seat and offering the occasional regal nod from the throne, the redoubtable director has now become the redoubtable chair, and he\u2019s still swinging for rail.<\/p>\n

Team have done a great job<\/h2>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been privileged to lead Freightliner Group for the last two and a half years,\u201d said Tim Shoveller. \u201cI have loved learning about the commercial realities of freight and logistics in the UK and Europe, but most of all, working with a fantastic team,\u201d he said, in tribute to the colleagues he\u2019s leaving behind at the intermodal side of the business, which has been sold to new owners<\/a>, the French shipping giants, CGM CMA.<\/p>\n

\"AI-generated
An AI imagining of a possible Heavy Haul Rail train. Image: \u00a9 Gemini \/ Open AI image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cJust as important,\u201d he said in a personal statement, following up on his letter to all staff, which announced and preceded the split of the Freightliner business. \u201cThe team have done a great job improving the core business, including staff facilities at many of our locations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Building a cleaner future for freight<\/h2>\n

Heavy Haul Rail Limited officially launched as a new company in the UK rail freight market<\/a> on Thursday last week (29 January), following the sale of Freightliner UK\u2019s intermodal logistics business. HHR is now focused solely on the bulk freight market, and has the significant advantage of a strong existing customer base upon which to build. The company currently moves 17 million tonnes of freight a year for the industrial, energy and construction sectors.<\/p>\n

\"Dave
Dave Penney, the newly appointed chief executive of Heavy Haul Rail. Image: \u00a9 Heavy Haul Rail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe want to become the UK\u2019s most progressive bulk rail freight partner,\u201d said Dave Penney, now the CEO of Heavy Haul Rail Limited. \u201cKnown for bold thinking, outstanding reliability, and a commitment to building a cleaner future for freight, our goal is to support industries, communities and the economy by moving more of the UK\u2019s bulk freight from congested roads to clean, high-capacity rail.\u201d<\/p>\n

An entrepreneurial start-up – with benefits<\/h2>\n

If Dave Penney was expecting his robust statement to be supported by the Chair, he was right. In a public statement made in his own right, Tim Shoveller said that despite the economic advantages that trucks have, especially in the UK, his previous employers have been the fastest-growing major operator. He said that they had increased market share in both the intermodal and construction materials sectors. Shoveller had been behind Freightliner\u2019s bold intentions to grow its intermodal business significantly. It would appear that he has an equally clear ambition for Heavy Haul Rail.<\/p>\n

His board of directors certainly have the vision and experience to help make that a reality. \u201cIn many ways, we are going back to our roots by reimagining Heavy Haul Rail as an entrepreneurial start-up company focused on innovation and growth,\u201d said Ed Wilson, Commercial Director. \u201cThe difference is that we have the advantage of being able to build on our existing foundation of over 25 years of high levels of customer service and reliability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three million miles a year, 95 locomotives, over 1000 wagons and 950 colleagues. \u201cCustomer deliveries to over 100 locations across the UK, running 250 trains per week,\u201d added Ed Wilson. Heavy Haul Rail does hit the tracks running, with the throttle wide open. The chairman agrees. \u201cNew opportunities all round, a good start to the year,\u201d said Tim Shoveller, to which the company\u2019s official statement added: \u201cWe have bold ambitions for growth and look forward to expanding our support to customers and partners across the bulk freight sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s just typical of British transport. You wait all day for a new rail freight operator, and then two came along at once \u2013 and\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":[12380,72,19294,19295,1931,19296,471,47,7542],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-360867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulk","category-business","category-cgm-cma","category-dave-penney","category-freightliner","category-heavy-haul-rail","category-news","category-rail-news","category-tim-shoveller","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360867","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=360867"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":361514,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360867\/revisions\/361514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=360867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=360867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=360867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}