NEW entrant to the British rail freight market, GoExpress, has concluded a series of trials running intermodal trains at speeds of up to 145km/h. The programme included 54 test runs on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) between DPD’s hub at East Midlands Gateway in Leicestershire and the Mossend Eurocentral terminal near Glasgow in Scotland.
GoExpress says all but one train ran on schedule, with trains of 40ft high cube containers on wagons leased from Freightliner hauled by tri-mode Stadler-built class 93 four-axle locomotives supplied by Rail Operations Group (ROG) taking substantially less time than current intermodal services on the 435km route, reducing the journey time from around 7 hours to 4h 30min. DAF XF electric lorries were used for first and last mile movements.
GoExpress says metered energy consumption of the trains while working in electric mode demonstrate energy consumption of around 58% of that of electric lorries, while regenerative braking delivered power savings of more than 1100kWh per journey – enough to power an electric lorry for 800km.
The high-speed, low carbon logistics proof of concept trials that took place between May and June were funded by the Department for Transport’s Freight Innovation Fund, and GoExpress is supported by Connected Places Catapult, infrastructure Network Rail, the Rail Safety and Standards Board and DPD.
Commercial services?
GoExpress says that with the commercial case now proven, the company is looking to provide regular 145km/h middle mile services.
“Our trial demonstrates that express logistics companies can rapidly optimise their middle-mile networks through the adoption of high-speed rail,” says Adam Parkinson, CEO and founder of GoExpress.
“For operators under pressure to take time, cost and carbon out of their networks, our reliable high-speed rail product is a commercial option which can complement existing electric lorry rollout and scope 3 sustainability targets.”
