Direct Rail Services

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Diesel locomotive from Direct Rail Services Ltd.

Direct Rail Services Ltd, abbreviated to DRS , is a British railway company that offers freight transport . The company was founded in 1995 by British Nuclear Fuels to transport radioactive materials and was taken over by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on April 1, 2005 .

Company Direct Rail Services Ltd.

For the fuel cycle of the British nuclear power plants , the state railway played British Rail , a major role since 1962 as their including the transport of fuel between the power plants and the reprocessing plant THORP and B205 in Sellafield fell. When British Rail was divided into various, largely independently operating business units in preparation for privatization, these transports were added to the "TransRail" business unit.

In order not to be tied to a transport company and also to be able to develop new business areas, the state-owned British Nuclear Fuels plc. 1995 with Direct Rail Services Ltd (DRS) its own railway company, which started operations in February 1996 and appeared as a competitor to "TransRail".

As of April 1, 2005, DRS became the property of the newly established Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The main task of this state company is to oversee the decommissioning, cleaning and dismantling of certain nuclear facilities in the UK.

Transport services

Radioactive material

The transport of radioactive material is the main business area of ​​Direct Rail Services Ltd (DRS). In the first years after it was founded, the transports carried out by DRS were largely limited to the area of Cumbria , as the connections between the power stations and Sellafield continued to be opened up by the English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS), which had been privatized since 1996 former British Rail division "TransRail". In 1996, DRS only took over the transport of foreign fuel elements to be processed between the port of Barrow-in-Furness and Sellafield , the weekly delivery of chemicals from Runcorn to Sellafield and the regular transport of radioactive waste between Sellafield and the nearby repository in Drigg .

From 1999, the existing contracts between the power plant operators and the English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) gradually expired. DRS was able to take over these transports and de facto oust EWS from this business area. According to a fixed timetable , connections between the British nuclear power plants and Sellafield are offered around weekly - thus significantly more frequently than the German Castor transports .

Container

In February 2001 DRS started a regular train connection for the transport of containers and swap bodies between Grangemouth in Scotland and Daventry near Rugby on behalf of the Malcolm Group . Initially, two trains per direction and per week were offered. This offer has now been expanded to six trains per direction per week.

Since September 16, 2003, DRS has been offering further container transports between the Freightliner terminal in Coatbridge near Glasgow and Daventry. These services, performed five times a week in each direction, are also carried out on behalf of the Malcolm Group. Again on behalf of the Malcolm Group, there has also been a DRS train connection for container transport between Grangemouth and Aberdeen since 2004 .

At the end of 2004, DRS announced the establishment of a daily container train connection between Daventry and the Thamesport container port in Kent .

Since May 8, 2005, DRS has also been transporting container trains between Ditton, a terminal near Widnes , and the port of Purfleet in Essex . The users of this connection, which is offered on weekdays, are the freight forwarders AHC (Warehousing) Ltd and Novatrans UK.

Other services

In 1997 DRS carried out a test run for the Tankfreight forwarding company from Harrogate . Over a period of four weeks, truck trailers loaded with milk were transported by rail from Penrith, Cumbria, to Cricklewood , a borough of London . However, this did not result in a long-term transport order.

For several years, DRS provided locomotives and personnel for companies that, on behalf of the rail infrastructure operators Railtrack and Network Rail, prevent the growth of weeds in the track bed by means of wagons equipped with spray devices .

Traction vehicles

DRS currently has around 50 operational locomotives . In the early years of the company, the procurement of brand new locomotives was discontinued for financial reasons. At the same time, the privatized divisions of the former British Railways were not ready to sell vehicles to the rival company. The DRS therefore procured the first traction vehicles from a construction company involved in the construction of the Eurotunnel . More locomotives were taken over by the Eurostar Group Ltd after their plans to offer night trains failed.

With the entry into container transport, however, DRS ordered brand-new locomotives. Ten large diesel locomotives of the type JT42CWR (series "Class 66") purchased by General Motors-EMD have been available since 2003. One of these locomotives bears the corporate colors and lettering of the DRS major customer Malcolm Group.

Operational locomotives
model series Type Construction year number power V / max F / max
Class 20 Diesel locomotive from 1957 15th 745 kW 120 km / h 187 kN
Class 33 Diesel locomotive from 1960 3 906 kW 96 km / h (2 locomotives)
136 km / h (1 locomotive) 		200 kN
Class 37 (Series Class 37/0 ) Diesel locomotive from 1960 10 1,300 kW 128 km / h 245 kN
Class 37 (Series Class 37/5 ) Diesel locomotive from 1960 1 1,300 kW 128 km / h 248 kN
Class 37 (Series Class 37/6 ) Diesel locomotive from 1960 8th 1,300 kW 144 km / h 245 kN
Class 47 Diesel locomotive from 1962 4th 1,920 kW 153 km / h 267 kN
Class 66 Diesel locomotive from 2003 10 2,385 kW 120 km / h 409 kN

literature

  • pson: DRS, the unknown British state railway . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 4/2014, p. 205.

Web links

Commons : Direct Rail Services  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files