SCOTLAND'S exporters could receive a major boost under plans by German rail firm DB Schenker to expand the volume of goods delivered to Europe by train.
The company – the logistics arm of former state-owned firm Deutsche Bahn – is aiming to move from one weekly service between Mossend in central Scotland and its Barking depot in London to three by the end of this year, then up to five a week within three to five years.
It will tie in with an expansion of its Barking to Poland service along the High Speed 1 route, effectively upping the amount of freight that can be exported from Scotland to Europe from around 2000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes per week.
It comes as DB Schenker, the UK's biggest rail freight company following the acquisition of the former English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) in 2007, is preparing to announce a deal that will remove 8000 lorries a year from the A9.
In an interview with The Herald, Carsten Hinne, managing director for logistics, said the company was taking a more pan-European approach to the freight market, which offered opportunities for Scotland's export-led economy.
"Being German and looking at freight strategy in Europe, we take a bigger view of the market. For Scotland, we can add in and combine to the European network," Mr Hinne said.
"If we link to our Poland service, we are currently trying out one service a week but want to try for a more frequent service. If we find volume and customers, we want to have three (weekly) services by the end of 2012 and five services in three to five years' time."
Mr Hinne, who was appointed to the post last June, said DB Schenker was prepared to work more closely with other rail freight operators to achieve a "critical mass" of deliveries.
This would help Scotland achieve its ambitious climate change targets by shifting deliveries away from road transport and onto rail, which produces lower levels of carbon dioxide.
"As rail freight economics are about critical mass, we are more than willing to have a more collaborative approach into the marketplace in order to fill volumes to get critical mass. I think this is a new approach but critical when we need to increase volumes," he said.
The main beneficiaries of the plans are expected to be Scotland's food and drink industries, as the retail, logistics and intermodal sectors are targeted.
An expansion of rail exports from Scotland will also help DB Schenker to achieve a better balance on its train loadings, currently biased towards imports from Europe to the UK.
The firm, which has terminals at Inverness, Aberdeen, Grangemouth and Mossend, is also in discussions with Government agency Transport Scotland and infrastructure firm Network Rail about electrification plans that could allow longer trains to operate in Scotland.
Restrictions imposed by bridges and tunnels limit the type of electric train that can be deployed to no longer than 600 metres. But DBS is hoping to run longer, 750-metre electric trains on the East and West Coast Main Lines if a programme of infrastructure improvements can be agreed. This would mean electrification of the Edinburgh South Suburban line and Shotts route to the West Coast Main Line.
A decision is expected in July.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article