Freight onto Rail: Derbyshire County Council

Derbyshire County Council, which won last year’s National Transport Award for Freight, sponsored by the Freight on Rail campaign, has an outstanding story to tell on freight with 8 million tonnes of freight now carried by rail each year that previously went by road.

The council is committed to promoting sustainable transport and minimising the negative impacts of freight transport and fully supports the Government target to increase rail-freight movements by 80 per cent over the period 2000 to 2010.
Derbyshire is a major producer of aggregate and mineral products, which are principally consumed elsewhere in the country. Transport of these goods raises a significant environmental issue in terms of the sensitive environment of the Peak District, which is the main source of limestone working, and the burden that lorry traffic would place on local communities. Developing and implementing a freight onto rail policy has involved the council building a strong relationship between the rail-freight operators – principally EWS – Railtrack, the SRA, the Rail Freight Group, manufacturers, freight forwarders and extractive industries. Good liaison has also been built within the council between the departments of transport, policy and mineral planning.

Eight years ago, officers were looking to reduce lorry movements of quarry materials and at the same time councillors were being petitioned by locals on the same issue. Through negotiation and working together, and with the support of the DETR rail- freight facilities grants, a win/win transfer to rail was achieved and 100 lorry movements were removed from the roads each week. The connections were already there at both ends, that made the transfer smoother, but it was the will on both sides to work together that led to action. There has been a further spiral of enhancements, including grants for modern handling facilities, which have now led to seven or eight trains running daily. The desire among stone producers to use rail has also resulted, rather paradoxically, in movement by rail of materials for general road building and construction of the new runway at Manchester Airport. In addition, the council has worked with several open-cast coal producers to move freight onto rail.

National Power and Powergen also move limestone produced in Derbyshire by rail for flue gas desulpurisation. Derbyshire County Council has also managed to get agreement with Stockport local authority to reopen Bredbury Terminal, removing significant lorry traffic from the A6 to and within Stockport. Looking ahead there are plans to open up the railway line between Matlock and Buxton, which rejoins the rail network at either end, freeing up much needed capacity on the line between Manchester and Sheffield. The council is also currently working on a plan to re-open a rail-freight terminal for general cargoes, east of Chesterfield, with access to the M1 motorway.
Derbyshire Council has also been a joint sponsor of Sheffield Hallam University rail- freight research, which aims to raise awareness of the rail-freight industry’s requirements with planners and highlight problems of planning for rail-freight growth.