Freightliner (railway company)
| Freightliner Group | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Limited |
| founding | 1995 |
| Seat |
London ,
|
| management | Russell Mears (CEO) |
| Number of employees | 2,500+ |
| sales | $ 785 million |
| Branch | Railway companies |
| Website | www.freightliner.co.uk |
Freightliner is a British railway company that offers freight transport - in particular the transport of containers and bulk goods . The company, which was privatized in 1996 and has been operating independently since then, is the second largest rail freight operator in Great Britain after DB Cargo UK (formerly English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS)). At the end of February 2015, 94 percent of the Freightliner shares were acquired by the US railroad company Genesee and Wyoming Inc. for USD 755 million .
Development before privatization
In 1963 , the then chairman of the British Railways Board of the British Railways , Dr. Richard Beeching , presented a report on the rationalization and modernization of the increasingly loss-making UK rail system. The report and its implementation became known and criticized in the following years mainly because of the radical line closures known as the Beeching Ax - British railway lines with a total length of around 10,000 kilometers were abandoned.
By contrast, British Rail's initially tentative entry into combined cargo transport (KLV) remained comparatively unnoticed .
construction
A network of train connections for the transport of containers and swap bodies between the British centers was started under the name Freightliner . On November 15, 1965, the first Freightliner train ran from London King's Cross to Glasgow .
Further connections were gradually established - in 1966 to Garston ( Liverpool ), 1967 to Cardiff and Leeds , 1968 to Southampton- Millbrook and 1969 to Manchester and Birmingham . From 1970, Tilbury , another destination in the greater London area, was approached. With the establishment of container train connections to the ports of Southampton-Maritime and Felixstowe- South, additional connections for international transports were created from 1972. In the years that followed, the network was expanded to include further train routes - from 1974 to Barking , 1976 to Coatbridge , 1979 to Seaforth , 1983 to Felixstowe-North, 1989 to Middlesbrough / Cleveland and 1993 to Thamesport (Isle of Grain, Kent ). In 1972 the millionth container was transported in the Freightliner system, and in September 1981 the ten millionth.
Freightliner as part of the National Freight Corporation
The Freightliner services initially offered as a sub-division of British Rail were spun off into a separate company, Freightliner Ltd, on November 19, 1968. British Rail - still operator of the trains, but no longer responsible for logistics and sales - only held 49% of the company shares, while the remaining 51% were transferred to the "National Freight Corporation (NFC)". The NFC, a for-profit company wholly owned by the British government, was founded in 1968 as a result of the 1968 Transport Act. In the years that followed, numerous other state-owned British transport companies were integrated into the NFC, which was largely supported by the then British Transport Minister Barbara Castle .
Freightliner as part of British Rail
In the 1970s, the freight traffic handled by British Rail gradually declined. Companies under the umbrella of the National Freight Corporation (NFC), such as National Carriers Ltd (NCL), were also responsible for this. In order to put British Rail in a position to react more aggressively to the decline in traffic, restructuring was demanded by British Rail and the railway workers' unions from around 1975 and partially implemented by the British government. Part of this restructuring was the transfer of the Freightliner system back to British Rail, which was completed on August 4, 1978.
privatization
As part of British Rail, Freightliner remained a comparatively independent entity. As a consequence, Freightliner formed one of these units when British Rail was split into various business units in preparation for its privatization . By a railway law passed in 1993, these units were converted into independent companies on April 1, 1994 and put up for sale.
While the other three business units that emerged from the British Rail freight sector (“Mainline Freight”, “Loadhaul” and “Trans-Rail”) all merged into the English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS), Freightliner Ltd made its way in 1996 Independent management buy-out .
Organizational structure and traffic development
In addition to classic container transport, Freightliner began offering the transport of bulk goods in 1999 under the name Freightliner Heavy Haul .
"Freightliner Heavy Haul" division
In April 2001, this division was spun off as an independent company Freightliner Heavy Haul Ltd under the umbrella of the Freightliner Group .
The first major customer was the operator of the British rail infrastructure at the time, Railtrack , who concluded a major contract with Freightliner for the transport of ballast and other building materials. The services provided also included the delivery of material for the construction of Section 1 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link . Also in 1999, Freightliner began transporting trains for the automotive industry.
In 2000, another major customer for the "Heavy Haul" business area was won with Blue Circle Cement . Another company in the cement industry, Lafarge , has been commissioning Freightliner to handle transports since July 2002. Freightliner has also been transporting construction materials for Ferndale Aggregates Ltd. since 2003.
Freightliner has been transporting coal , the classic bulk cargo of the British railways, since December 22, 2000. Several large orders in this area mean that on March 12, 2003 Freightliner will be able to handle the 10,000th coal block train . On January 6, 2003, Freightliner Heavy Haul signed a ten-year contract with the East London Waste Authority for the transport of household waste.
"Freightliner Intermodal" division
The transport of containers and swap bodies is still a core business of the company. This division has been operating as Freightliner Intermodal Ltd within the Freightliner Group since April 2001 .
Even though all four freight transport providers on the British rail transport market - in addition to Freightliner, these are Direct Rail Services (DRS) , English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) and GB Railfreight - offer container services, Freightliner is still by far the largest provider on this market Segment. The company transports containers in excess of one million TEU every year .
The following terminals are served by Freightliner Intermodal:
- Ports: Felixstowe , Seaforth , Southampton- Maritime, Southampton Millbrook, Thamesport and Tilbury . Freightliner also offers connections to Belfast and Dublin . However, these two terminals are not served by rail by Freightliner.
- Inland terminals operated by Freightliner: Barking , Birmingham , Cardiff , Middlesbrough / Cleveland, Coatbridge (near Glasgow ), Leeds , Liverpool and Manchester
- Independent terminals served by Freightliner: Daventry , Hams Hall (near Birmingham) and Widnes
Activities abroad
Freightliner PL
Since 2006 Freightliner has expanded its business to the Polish freight market. The Polish subsidiary Freightliner PL (FPL) currently mainly transports coal. The first train delivered hard coal from the Bogdanka mine in the Lublin hard coal basin to the Kozienice power plant on September 1, 2007 . 23 million tons of goods are now transported annually. Freightliner PL currently uses 22 EMD JT42CWR / Class 66 freight locomotives. The Class 66 locomotives 66 001 to 66 007 are also used in Germany. In addition, Freightliner PL has been operating five hybrid locomotives of the E6ACT (Newag Dragon) series since 2016.
Freightliner DE
Freightliner PL has been operating on the German rail network since 2007. In the summer of 2011, Freightliner DE GmbH (FDE), based in Berlin, was approved by the Federal Railway Authority as a railway company for passenger and freight transport in Germany. The focus is on the transport of bulk goods with its own particularly large open freight wagons, as well as on east-west transit traffic with trains that are heavier than average with a total weight of up to 4000 t. Class 66 diesel locomotives are used for traction.
Freightliner Australia
Freightliner Australia Pty Ltd was founded in April 2007 and is licensed as a rail transport company in the states of New South Wales , Queensland and Western Australia . Container traffic for a cotton cooperative in New South Wales started in summer 2009 and in autumn 2010 a contract for the transport of 10 million tons of coal annually between the Hunter Valley mines and the port of Newcastle was signed.
ERS Railways
The Dutch company ERS Railways (note: European Rail Shuttle) has been active in combined transport as a joint venture between the shipping companies Mærsk and P&O Nedlloyd since it was founded in 1994 and transports containers and trailers in block trains on various European routes. In 2013 it was sold to Freightliner. In May 2018, ERS Railways, including the 47 percent share in the rail transport company boxXpress , was resold to Hupac .
Traction vehicles
The Freightliner Group currently has more than 150 operational locomotives . The largest share is made up of 96 diesel locomotives of the type JT42CWR (series 66) purchased from EMD in several series .
| Operational locomotives | ||||||
| model series | Type | Construction year | number | power | V / max | F / max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BR class 08 | Shunting locomotive ( diesel ) | from 1953 | 10 | 260 kW | 32 km / h | 156 kN |
| BR class 47 | Diesel locomotive | from 1962 | 8th | 1,920 kW | 153 km / h | 267 kN |
| BR class 57 | Diesel locomotive | from 1997 (conversion from class 47) |
12 | 1,860 kW | 120 km / h | 245 kN |
| BR class 66 (series 66/5) | Diesel locomotive | from 1998 | 76 | 2,385 kW | 120 km / h | 409 kN |
| BR class 66 (series 66/6) | Diesel locomotive | from 2000 | 18th | 2,385 kW | 105 km / h | 467 kN |
| BR class 66 (series 66/9) | Diesel locomotive | from 2004 | 2 | 2,385 kW | 120 km / h | 409 kN |
| BR class 86 | Electric locomotive | from 1965 | 19th | 2,685 kW | 120 km / h | 258 kN |
| BR class 90 | Electric locomotive | from 1987 | 10 | 3,566 kW | 120 km / h (freight traffic) 177 km / h (passenger traffic) |
258 kN |
Web links
swell
- ^ Genesee & Wyoming completes Freightliner acquisition. Railway Gazette , March 26, 2015, accessed May 9, 2015 .
- ^ Restructuring at British Rail in the 1970s, detailed description on the TSSA website
- ↑ Freightliner and Deutsche Bahn enter Polish freight market ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. February 12, 2007
- ^ Polish freight progress . In: Railway Gazette International , October 19, 2007.
- ↑ Thomas Wöhrle: Freightliner Deutschland GmbH, in: Privatbahn Magazin , Lüneburg, issue 2/2013, p. 70f
- ↑ Freightliner in Germany. Freightliner DE GmbH, 2013, accessed on March 30, 2013 .
- ^ Freightliner Australia begins with a cotton contract. Railwaygazette, July 2, 2009, accessed March 30, 2013 .
- ^ Freightliner and Xstrata sign Australian coal contract. Railwaygazette, September 25, 2010, accessed March 30, 2013 .
- ↑ Second private foreign RU on German tracks
- ↑ Freightliner acquires ERS Railways ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release from June 19, 2013
- ↑ Hupac will take over ERS Railways in order to strengthen its position in maritime hinterland transport. Hupac Intermodal SA, May 2, 2018, accessed on April 21, 2019 .
