GB Railfreight, the British carrier, has agreed a new two-year contract extension with DP World, the multinational maritime resources corporation. GBRf will provide staff to prepare all freight trains departing from their London Gateway terminal. GBRf provides an extensive timetable of intermodal services from the port complex.

The two-year contract extension will allow GB Railfreight to continue to provide its expertise in shoreside handling of the busy intermodal traffic at the port facility.GBRf staff will continue to ensure the safe dispatch of rail freight services to and from destinations all over Great Britain. London Gateway is one half of the corporate collaboration comprising the Thames Freeport, alongside Tilbury (operated by Edinburgh-based Forth Ports).

Greenhouse gas reductions across all scopes

Every year, more than 5,000 trains serve London Gateway, collectively removing around 150,000 HGV movements from the UK’s road network. That figure accounts for roughly 300,000 TEU moved by rail. According to GB Railfreight, these services help significantly reduce carbon emissions from the UK’s supply chains. That’s a valuable resource for the client operator, not least for the mandatory scope 2 reductions in greenhouse gasses, and their voluntary reductions in scope 3 emissions – an important part of maritime operations.

London Gateway is one of the UK’s largest and most important ports. To put the rail freight operation in perspective, last year the port moved 1.8m TEU, with cargo containing a huge range of consumable goods, from fridges to frozen food, water to wine, toys to tonic. “Rail freight moves a wide range of goods that are in all our homes and are significant drivers of our economy”, said a GBRf statement.

Preparing all services departing for the next two years

GB Railfreight remains eager to improve its position as a fast-growing part of the sector. “Extending our contract with DP World is a testament to the hard work and commitment of our staff at London Gateway,” said Julie Garn, Head of Intermodal at the company. “We’ll be preparing all services departing for the next two years. We’ll continue to work with the team at [London Gateway] to look at opportunities to drive modal shift and maximise the societal benefits that rail freight offers”. Recent handling infrastructure installations at London Gateway will also help streamline rail operations and make possible further modal shift.

For their part, the port owners are well aware of the advantages that rail freight brings to operations on the north bank of the Thames. Part of the successful application to be nominated as a UK Freeport was based on the level of commitment to rail freight dedicated to intermodal operations. “Connecting freight from our ports to the UK rail network is helping us deliver for our customers, enabling them to stay competitive in a fast-moving trading environment while increasing the sustainability of their supply chains,” said John Trenchard, Vice President UK Commercial & Supply Chain at DP World. “Our extended contract with GB Railfreight will help us to keep delivering and developing our freight train services from London Gateway over the next two years.”