GB Railfreight has started a second daily service to Widnes intermodal terminal. The almost inevitable origin is Britain’s biggest intermodal port, Felixstowe. The weekday service represents a doubling of capacity for GBRf on the Felixstowe to Widnes route. For rail freight, in general, it’s a significant capacity enhancement on a critical logistics route between the east and west coasts of Great Britain.

Moving goods inland from the UK port portfolio is still largely a task accomplished by road transport. However, GB Railfreight has made a significant dent in that figure. The rail freight operator has doubled its handling capacity between Felixstowe and the modest terminal at Widnes, near Liverpool. The company claims that will remove 500 heavy goods vehicle movements from British roads.

Merseyside terminal charts success with GBRf

GB Railfreight (GBRf) is reviewing its first week of operations on its augmented service between Felixstowe and Widnes. the company has now settled into a pattern of twice-daily services, connecting the vast container port with the slightly less vast container terminal on the north bank of the River Mersey.

The company says this new service has been introduced following the significant demand generated by GBRf’s first service, which commenced in October 2023. GBRf will be running five additional trains a week, bringing the number of services between Felixstowe and Widnes up to eleven per week. The company says the additional services will remove around 500 HGV movements from the UK’s road network, alleviating congestion and improving road safety. This year, GB Railfreight enthusiastically claims to have moved over 100,000 boxes through the Port of Felixstowe in the first half of this year and is on target to double that before the year-end.

Investment at both ends of the journey

The Widnes facility has been an excellent example of foresight resulting in commercial success. “We are delighted to accept another GB Railfreight service from the Port of Felixstowe into Stobart Ports Widnes,” said Sean French, Managing Director at Stobart Ports. “This further enhances our existing rail schedule to over 50 rail services per week, encouraging the modal switch to rail. With our Widnes site being ETSF and AFSO accredited [External Temporary Storage Facility and Approved Freight Service Operators], this also supports final mile and storage solutions to complement the rail services.”

Julie Garn, Head of Intermodal at GB Railfreight, was equally enthusiastic at the introduction of the new service. “[Working with Stobarts, we are] doubling the volume we move between Felixstowe and Widnes,” she said. “Having already moved 100,000 boxes in and out of the Port of Felixstowe in 2024, we are pushing hard to double this by the end of the year.” As well as being the biggest shipping container port in the UK, Felixstowe is also the UK’s busiest rail freight terminal. “We welcome this new service by GB Railfreight to Widnes,” said Robert Ashton, Chief Operating Officer at Port of Felixstowe. “We have invested heavily to make Felixstowe the busiest intermodal rail freight facility in the UK and support the increased use of rail as an effective way of cutting supply chain emissions.”

The real significance of the new service

Widnes container terminal is as discrete as it gets for an intermodal rail terminal. it sits on the southern edge of the town’s industrial quarter, behind a tree line that is more mature than the terminal. The four-track facility was only conceived just over ten years ago in a project proposed by the Stobart Ports logistics company. It has proved popular with operators – not least for the length of the receiving roads (all of them capable of taking a 740m train). The added interest from GBRf is only the latest addition to the operational roster.

The rail freight industry is always eager to quantify its operations in comparison to road traffic, but the figures can understate the importance of the contribution. It is true that the new service has the capacity to remove 500 HGV movements from the UK roads. However, the terminal operators concede that the final mile is still the preserve of road services. The real significance is that the rail service is long distance (more than 100 miles – 160km). That is a laudable contribution to all the environmental and congestion issues raised by GBRf. However, there’s a long way to go before the A14 (road out of Felixstowe) becomes a country lane, and Britain’s 300,000 registered truck drivers need not show any concern for their livelihoods just yet.