Representations of Freightliner Limited
| Date | 17 March 2010 |
| Section | DBS Regulation 29 appeal regarding access to the Port of Felixstowe |
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Our Ref:
Your Ref:
Freightliner Group Limited
3rd Floor, The Podium
1 Eversholt Street
London
NW1
2FL
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7200 3967
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7200
3975
Email:
Web: www.freightliner.co.uk
17 March 2010
Mr Paul
McMahon
Deputy Director
Railway Markets and Economics
Office of Rail Regulation
One Kemble Street
London
WC2B
4AN
Dear Paul
Appeal
under
Regulation 29
of
the
Railways
Infrastructure
(Access and Management)
Regulations 2005 - Access
to
the
Port
of
Felixstowe -
Freightliner
Response
BACKGROUND
Freightliner Limited (FL) operate train services to and from the Port of Felixstowe
(PoF)
carrying deep sea freight containers on behalf of our customers, who are predominantly
shipping companies such as Maersk Line,
Coscon
Shipping and Evergreen Shipping.
Freightliner have been operating rail services at Felixstowe since 1968 and presently have
21
round
trip
services per day operating to 12
different
destinations, 7 of which are
owned/operated by the Freightliner Group. We are forecasting we
will
carry circa 350,000
freight containers to and from Felixstowe in the twelve-month period April 2010 to March
2011, which we estimate
will
be
75%
of the
total
containers moved by rail through the port.
The Port of Felixstowe is responsible
for
lifting
the containers on and
off
the trains in the
rail terminals and moving the containers, by internal vehicles, between the rail terminals
and the container ships.
The port, which is approximately 4 miles in length, operates 24 ship to shore cranes and is
capable of handling 1.2m containers per year. Currently only the Trinity berth complex is in
operation, occupying some 1000 acres in area, the Languard berth is currently mothballed.
CAPACITY
CONSTRAINTS
FL believes
that
the rail terminals at the Port of Felixstowe are currently operating at
full
capacity and
that
until actions are taken to create additional capacity and ensure reliability
of
service to train operators no additional services should be accepted.
Since the introduction of the 28t h rail service in June 2009 the
PoF
have struggled to
provide a reliable service to Freightliner in terms of presenting containers at the rail
terminal and loading them onto our wagons. In 2009/10 some 6,350 containers have not
been loaded by the port due to port
issues
and a
further
7,391 containers have not been
loaded due to adverse weather. The 28th train appears to have pushed the Port of
Raillnvest Halding Company (Reg. No. 06522978) is the
ultimate
parent
company and controlling
entity
of Raillnvest Acquisitions
Limited
(Reg. No. 06522985), Freightliner Group
Limited
(Reg. No. 05313119), Freightliner Acquisitions
Limited
(Reg. No. 05313136), Management Consortium
Bid Limited (Reg. No. 02957951), Freightliner Limited (Reg. No. 03118392), Freightliner Heavy Haul Limited (Reg. No. 3831229),
Freightliner Maintenance
Limited
(Reg. No. 05713164)and
Freightliner
Railports
Limited
(Reg. No. 05928006).
Registered in England and Wales, Registered Office
of
all nine companies: 3rd Floor, The Podium, 1 Eversholt Street, London, NWl 2FL.
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