Construction Ramps Up At £260 Million Mossend International Railfreight Park In Scotland
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Engineer.
This is the first paragraph.
The development of a major new low carbon, multi-modal rail freight facility located in the heart of Scotland has taken a significant step forward with the laying of a private rail track to facilitate construction. Once complete, Mossend International Railfreight Park (MIRP) will provide 2.2 million sq ft of logistics space and Scotland’s first 775-metre electric rail terminal.
This looks to be all good stuff.
But Glasgow has needed the capability to handle 775-metre electric freight trains for some time.
- 775 metres is the length of the longest freight trains in use in the UK, after an increase in length, that I wrote about in New 775m-Long Freight Trains Begin Operating On UK’s Rail Network.
- Electric locomotives will cut carbon emissions.
- Mossend International Railfreight Park (MIRP) has a fully electrified connection to the West Coast Main Line (WCML).
- From the WCML routes are electrified most of the way to major freight destinations in England and to the Channel Tunnel.
So what took politicians so long to decide to upgrade the MIRP, as surely the ability to handle the longest electric freight trains will surely encourage the following?
- The movement of freight from road to rail.
- A reduction in freight traffic on the roads of Scotland and to a lesser extend England.
- The ability to run electric freight trains between Glasgow and Continental Europe.
If freight ramps up after the MIRP is completed, there’ll probably be a need for the following.
Some new highly capable locomotives like the Class 93 locomotive.
More than the proposed 16 trains per day (tpd).
They will certainly need the planned 24/7 operation.
This Google Map shows the site of the MIRP at the current time.
It will be interesting to see how the site grows.
The Anonymous Widower 
Sorry to disappoint but 775mtrs is not the maximum length of freight trains in the UK. You might need to amend your comment as 775mtrs might only be relevant to certain routes. The longest to my knowledge was somewhere near double that length. Not sure how many trains of that length have run since but certainly there have been more than one. I believe that these have only operated between the Mendip Quarries and Acton yard.
I lack the details of when the first one ran but it was either late 70’s or early 80’s as I watched it pass through Slough.
Comment by Andrew Bruton | October 5, 2021 |
I had written the post describing the 775 metre trains, but not published it and remembered what I’d written. 775 metres is the maximum length in use.
Comment by AnonW | October 5, 2021 |