UK: Network Rail and its property development company Platform4 are to take a long-term lease of the Barking Eurohub freight terminal in east London, and the partners have begun discussions with companies which have expressed interest in operating regular intermodal trains to the site via the Channel Tunnel.
Continental-profile freight trains which are too large for the loading gauge on the rest of the UK network can reach Barking Eurohub via High Speed 1, and it is hoped that the site can be developed to encourage an increase in international rail freight. This has never reached the volumes that had been anticipated when the Channel Tunnel opened.
DB Cargo exits as Network Rail steps in
Barking Eurohub is owned by Legal & General and currently leased by DB Cargo, which has been seeking to exit the site. The government is providing undisclosed financial backing for the Network Rail deal announced on February 25.
Michael Barrie, Head of Real Estate (UK & Europe) at Legal & General, which was advised on the transaction by Ifield Properties, said the company was ’pleased to let this strategically important site to Network Rail, helping bring the Barking Eurohub site into full use. This deal supports vital investment in UK rail infrastructure, unlocking cleaner, faster freight links with Europe and reinforcing the government’s wider growth agenda.’
Network Rail CEO Jeremy Westlake said ‘by securing Barking Eurohub and unlocking more than £15m of private investment, we’re putting in place the infrastructure needed to restore regular cross-Channel intermodal freight services — supporting British businesses and trade, while also helping to protect our environment’.
DB Cargo UK told Rail Business UK that it had informed the Department for Transport, Network Rail and the Office of Rail & Road in December 2023 of its intention to withdraw from Barking Eurohub and use alternative sites for international customs-related operations.
’Whilst we no longer have operations at Barking Eurohub, we remain fully committed to maintaining and developing our international rail freight volumes and continue to invest in our Class 92 locomotives’, a spokesperson said. Dollands Moor yard at the British end of the Channel Tunnel ’continues to be a key staging post both for DB Cargo UK, our sister companies across Europe and our parent company, DB Cargo AG, and we have no plans to withdraw from or dispose of this site.’
Rail freight growth opportunites
DfT said only a very small proportion of rail freight passes through the Channel Tunnel, and these were single-customer bulk services. The plans for Barking Eurohub ‘could see British businesses directly import and export goods via rail to France, Germany, Italy and Spain’, with the possibility of importing fresh fruit and vegetables and exporting whisky, white goods and consumer goods.
Noting that the Channel Tunnel was ’a vital strategic asset that is presently under-utilised’, Rail Freight Group Director General Maggie Simpson said ’this investment by Network Rail and Platform4 is of huge importance and will help unlock renewed growth in international rail freight’.
