Could Trafford Park (freightliner terminal) be relocated?

[185]

mods note - split from this thread

Freightliner's badly placed container terminal should be shut down and sold, and perhaps be fully rebuilt somewhere actually facing the West Coast Main Line, (eg Eccles / Weaste). The mass of delay minutes and performance issues caused by huge freight trains trundling through the city centre of Manchester on a primary passenger route is major one and should have been dealt with long ago.

 

[The Planner]

Good luck telling a third party owned commercial site that they have to close. You wouldn't get the same level of traffic between Crewe and Weaver consistently.

 

[185]

Good luck telling a third party owned commercial site that they have to close.

They can keep their site. The people who regulate our railway in government can, and should limit or remove their NR access if they refuse to play ball.

eg. I hereby insist that my Amazon packet is brought to me in a 1km long freight train that entirely blocks London Waterloo for twenty minutes in the peak. If it's ridiculous and unacceptable for southerners, it's unacceptable everywhere else too.

 

[The Planner]

They can keep their site. The people who regulate our railway in government can, and should limit or remove their NR access if they refuse to play ball.

eg. I hereby insist that my Amazon packet is brought to me in a 1km long freight train that entirely blocks London Waterloo for twenty minutes in the peak. If it's ridiculous and unacceptable for southerners, it's unacceptable everywhere else too.

The legal process would cost millions, and won't stop further third parties wanting a piece of the pie as they are currently doing, Northampton Gateway, Hinckley, Parkside, Port Salford, Milton Malsor, Four Ashes and Ardley being cases in point. If they can prove their is capacity to run trains in they get their DCO and planning permission with realtive ease. The only one that has really fallen on its backside is Cannock.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I’m rather off the pace in terms of understanding what the TransPennine Route Upgade means in terms of the Chat Moss route but at least it is not directly affected by intermodal traffic to/from the Manchester area at the moment.

Surely transferring an equivalent level of traffic from the Castlefield Corridor to Eccles would have a similar dis-benefit on a two-track railway for Liverpool-Manchester(-Leeds, etc.) fast services and other trains using the Newton-le-Willows/Earlestown/Winwick areas?

Has the OP made any assessment of this?

 

[Mollman]

Trafford Park is located where customers are, surely moving it would add more lorries to local roads either through transfer from the new site or loss of rail all together.

 

[Meerkat]

I thought I read that the planned Parkside terminal was going to replace Trafford Park?

 

[The Planner]

I thought I read that the planned Parkside terminal was going to replace Trafford Park?

No, just a third party speculating that it will make them money. It may nick some traffic but its not a replacement.

 

[6Gman]

They can keep their site. The people who regulate our railway in government can, and should limit or remove their NR access if they refuse to play ball.

eg. I hereby insist that my Amazon packet is brought to me in a 1km long freight train that entirely blocks London Waterloo for twenty minutes in the peak. If it's ridiculous and unacceptable for southerners, it's unacceptable everywhere else too.

Waterloo is an odd comparison to make.

Surely Stratford is a better one - and they also have to cope with lengthy container trains winding through the place.

 

[HSTEd]

Well the true cost/value of the paths that Trafford Park consumes through the Castlefield corridor is probably comparable to or more than the money that the entire freight rail industry pays in access charges. Which was only £11m in the last financial year.

The maintenance of those paths is a product of political decisions about the structure and operation of the industry.

 

[zwk500]

Back on topic, you are extremely unlikely to actually relocate the terminal, although I wonder if a proposal to reopen the line between Glazebrook and Lowton with a chord connecting to the Chat Moss line, combined with gauge clearance and possibly electrification, might give enough paths out on to the WCML that way.

I suspect it'll never happen because under current criteria the BCR won't ever get near what it needs to be.