New proposed freight hub - Leicestershire

[londonmidland]

A new rail connected intermodel based rail hub is planned to be built in Hinckley, Leicestershire, with the decision to be made in September, by local government.

The rail hub will be located on the Felixstowe to Nuneaton rail corridor, connecting it to various ports and existing rail terminals.

Read the full article here

The £750million rail hub planned for land near Hinckley will be run by a major UK logistics company should the scheme get the go ahead from the secretary of state for transport, it’s been announced. Should planning approval be awarded, the Hinckley National Rail Freight Interchange (HNRFI), proposed by developer Tritax Symmetry, would be a major rail hub with nine warehouses and a rail terminal that could handle up to 16 trains each day.

Tritax has this week revealed that Maritime Transport Ltd will both build and operate the rail terminal at the 40-acre site, if the green light is given. The plan will be decided by the government, rather than by local councils, as it is deemed to be of national importance. The secretary of state for transport is due to announce the decision in September.

A new access and a lorry park would be created off the M69 at junction 2. Tritax says if the scheme is approved, it will open up links between Leicesterhsire and the Midlands with ports such as Felixstowe, Liverpool, London Gateway, Southampton, Teesport and Mossend, serving Scotland. Maritime Transport is based in Felixstowe, which is the UK’s largest container terminal.

 

[Donny Dave]

Seems a rather odd place to have a new terminal. Hams Hall and Daventry. The added complication is that junction 2 and the surrounding roads are going to need a big upgrade. Unless the idea of the new terminal and warehouses is to take work from other nearby terminals, I don't see much point to this proposal.

 

[sharpley]

The rail terminal at East Midlands Gateway is being expanded currently as well. I know a lot of locals around Hinckley and Burbage are against this development too.

 

[swt_passenger]

This has been in the wind for ages, I found a closed 2018 thread about it:

New Railfreight Terminal proposed near Hinckley, Leicestershire.

Not seen it mentioned elsewhere on the Forums, so please delete if I've missed it More information from the Leicester Mercury. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/huge-development-could-see-employment-952913 A huge 780 acre development could be built between a beauty spot...

www.railforums.co.uk

But there have also been mentions of a proposed Hinckley terminal in a number of more general threads about the East Midlands, and also suggestions about routeing via EWR…

 

[ac6000cw]

Seems a rather odd place to have a new terminal. Hams Hall and Daventry.

...and Hams Hall isn't exactly far away (about 15 miles). Maritime Transport - the proposed operator - already has an intermodal terminal at East Midlands Gateway, probably less than 25 miles away.

Assuming I've got the right place, the land (to the east of Hinckley) appears to be farmland at the moment, so it's also not a 'brownfield' re-development like Hams Hall (an ex-power station site).

It doesn't exactly feel like something that should be 'deemed to be of national importance' as the newspaper article says.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Wow the area is already known as The Golden Triangle of Logistics- didn’t realize yet another hub was planned.

 

[zwk500]

Presumably this will not replace but be in addition to the existing warehousing/logistics space mostly on the west side of Hinkley? Google Maps shows at least 2 DPD sites and a Tesco centre clustered around the A5.

Will be interesting to see how this site competes given the relative connectivity (direct access to WCML North, MML, Felixstowe and indirect access to Southampton/South West via Birmingham) above other nearby west midlands sites.

 

[sh24]

As I understand it, it's about building in further capacity rather than stealing business. Rail is normally the cheapest option from port but capacity constraints means it often is the slowest. Inland terminals are the bottleneck.

 

[Donny Dave]

As I understand it, it's about building in further capacity rather than stealing business. Rail is normally the cheapest option from port but capacity constraints means it often is the slowest. Inland terminals are the bottleneck.

I haven't got the relevant copy of Investors Chronicle to hand, but they had an article recently about the various REITs listed on the stock exchange. The ones focused on warehouses, in particular, large warehouses (such as Tritax Bigbox and Tritax Eurobox) have a over-supply of capacity, as retailers don't need as much space for several reasons. Increased footfall and purchases in store means fewer Internet orders, and the recent inflationary and interest rate increases have cut down demand as well.

Other REITs on the stock exchange which focus more on retail and office space, have proved to be more resilient in the last 12-18 months, but even these are facing the prospect of asset values dropping or remaining flat for a while.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Might be a good idea in theory, but isn't Ely North Jcn already the limiting factor re increasing traffic on the Birmingham - Leicester - Ipswich - Felixstowe route (among others)?

And Wigston - Syston Jcn another likely restriction without building flying junctions, at least at Wigston?

 

[The Planner]

Might be a good idea in theory, but isn't Ely North Jcn already the limiting factor re increasing traffic on the Birmingham - Leicester - Ipswich - Felixstowe route (among others)?

And Wigston - Syston Jcn another likely restriction without building flying junctions, at least at Wigston?

Depends where the traffic is expected from, if its from the east then the paths probably won't be there as paths from Felixstowe tend to be Y paths via Peterborough or the WCML. So you can't suddenly run two trains from Felixstowe in them. If its to/from the North its straightforward, as is from Southampton.

 

[Class 170101]

The other issue is the single line from Soham to Ely Dock Junction. Ely North Jn is a parallel Junction for the most common direction for the freight between Ely and Peterborough.

 

[InTheEastMids]

Plus Midlands Connect have aspirations to run a lot more trains between Leicester and the West Midlands. I may be misremembering but the idea might be 4 tph Leicester to Birmingham plus 2 tph Leicester to Coventry

 

[edwin_m]

The other issue is the single line from Soham to Ely Dock Junction. Ely North Jn is a parallel Junction for the most common direction for the freight between Ely and Peterborough.

Doubling the other routes would still increase Ely-Peterborugh capacity though, as trains on those routes could be timetabled to pass on the junction so each pair would only block one Peterborough path in each direction.

 

[The Planner]

Plus Midlands Connect have aspirations to run a lot more trains between Leicester and the West Midlands. I may be misremembering but the idea might be 4 tph Leicester to Birmingham plus 2 tph Leicester to Coventry

That relies on other infrastructure being put in by that project, namely resignalling Wigston Nuneaton and also putting some loops in.

 

[ac6000cw]

Doubling the other routes would still increase Ely-Peterborugh capacity though, as trains on those routes could be timetabled to pass on the junction so each pair would only block one Peterborough path in each direction.

The Ely North Junction capacity problem is as much about solving the level crossing problems as re-working the junction layout itself. Every train through it except a few using the West Curve pass through two automatic level crossings in the area (one if using the West Curve), which are at their acceptable safety limit in terms of train movements. Converting them to full-barrier crossings would give unacceptably long closure times as three out of the four are in series along the same short stretch of road. If I remember correctly, more trains could run through it now if the level crossings weren't there.

 

[sh24]

I haven't got the relevant copy of Investors Chronicle to hand, but they had an article recently about the various REITs listed on the stock exchange. The ones focused on warehouses, in particular, large warehouses (such as Tritax Bigbox and Tritax Eurobox) have a over-supply of capacity, as retailers don't need as much space for several reasons. Increased footfall and purchases in store means fewer Internet orders, and the recent inflationary and interest rate increases have cut down demand as well.

Other REITs on the stock exchange which focus more on retail and office space, have proved to be more resilient in the last 12-18 months, but even these are facing the prospect of asset values dropping or remaining flat for a while.

That's about storage - companies are running their stock levels down as the cost of capital has increased (for many) a lot. The terminals are more about throughput which is still running pretty well.

 

[edwin_m]

The Ely North Junction capacity problem is as much about solving the level crossing problems as re-working the junction layout itself. Every train through it except a few using the West Curve pass through two automatic level crossings in the area (one if using the West Curve), which are at their acceptable safety limit in terms of train movements. Converting them to full-barrier crossings would give unacceptably long closure times as three out of the four are in series along the same short stretch of road. If I remember correctly, more trains could run through it now if the level crossings weren't there.

Doubling the single leads and timetabling the trains to pass on the junction would also help with this, because trains in opposite directions would be able to pass during one slightly longer closure.

 

[Magdalia]

companies are running their stock levels down

Actually the opposite is happening because of disruption to container flows through the Suez Canal and its knock on effects, which include big increases in container shipping costs. Retailers are already trying to get their deliveries secured for Black Friday and Christmas.