A NEW rail freight service has been launched from a North-East port.
PD Ports, which has its headquarters in Middlesbrough, has launched a dedicated rail freight service between Teesport and Doncaster in partnership with GB Railfreight, for its major customer Containerships – Intra-European leader of multimodal transport.
The new service is responding to the growing demand for Teesport as the Northern UK gateway for trade which continues to see year-on-year growth across its container platform.
The twice-daily rail service removes 120 daily road movements from the heavily congested UK road network – a journey of 90 miles each way per vehicle.
Containerships’ confidence in PD Ports’ capability to deliver a reliable service to its end customer was cemented during a four-week trial period this spring. The service carries 56 boxes per day in two trips, outward journey from Doncaster, Darlington and Teesport and returning from Teesport, Yarm and Doncaster.
Jari Lepistö, chief commercial officer at Containerships, said: “Reliability and sustainability are core values for Containerships and its customers. We were looking for reliable partners to move large amounts of cargo with increased volumes coming from the Baltics in a sustainable way.
“We needed an effective daily plan to move containers to Doncaster when satisfying one of our major customers, IKEA Transport & Logistics Services’ environmental targets.”
Geoff Lippitt, group business development director at PD Ports, said: “Rail is at the forefront of our agenda at Teesport, providing vital UK connections for our customers and delivering significant environmental and cost-saving benefits.
He added: “We continue to see consistent growth in our container volumes at the port, reflecting not only the trust and confidence customers have in our ability to deliver reliable services but also in our capacity to offer frequency and flexibility, which is vital to their supply chain.”
