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50 trains used Telford rail freight terminal in first 365 days
Tuesday 18th January 2011, 3:35PM GMT.
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A multi-million-pound international rail freight terminal in Shropshire has been branded “a white elephant” by campaigners, who have called for more to be made of the site.
The £7.75m International Railfreight Park in Donnington, Telford, was expected to handle four trains a day when it opened in 2009.
But in its first year just 50 trains used the centre – leading to calls today for part of the site to be used as a lorry park to help boost business.
However, Telford & Wrekin Council chiefs have defended the terminal, saying they expected to make “significant” announcements about further new users in the next few weeks.
Regeneration chief, Councillor Eric Carter, said: “A facility like this, the only one of its kind in the region west of Birmingham, takes up to five years to establish itself.
“The terminal’s first 18 months have given a very solid platform despite the worst recession in decades.”
Telford & Wrekin Council member and Donnington Parish Council chairman Clive Mason is leading the calls for more use to be made of the site. He said the lorry park idea would bring some money to the site until it got off the ground.
Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Regional development agencies like Advantage West Midlands and the European Union have funded so many white elephants, justified on the basis of overly optimistic assumptions these projects are an incredible waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Colette Ranford, operations manager for Airdrie-based John G Russell (Transport), who run the site, said bosses would welcome any opportunity and commitment from local businesses to use the rail terminal.
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“But in its first year just 50 trains used the centre”
It would be more interesting to know just how many containers or wagons it has handled, as a “train” could be one wagon hauled by a loco.
As for using it as a lorry park, someone’s already beaten them to it – the sidings are currently full of redundant passenger rolling stock from Network Southeast.
I’m a great supporter of moving as much freight (and passenger) traffic as possible to rail, but this really was a half-baked scheme.
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50 trains ??? Does that include the lines of what look like old Underground trains, that have been sitting on the tracks at the depot for the last 6 or 7 months??
And, what good is a lorry park?? Apart from the fact that with the price of diesel set to go to £1.40 per litre there will be hundreds of Lorry’s off the road
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Thomas, those trains have never been on the Underground. They are being paid to store them for Soujthern Railways, I believe, so are generating income.
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i thought it had shut as the only thing moving past those gates is litter in the wind
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Good value for money then?
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I drew up the plans for this project in the late 70′s when all the new factories and the military depot were at full work strengths
Together with a senior military officer I presented our findings to the Telford Development Corporation.
The facility was to be financed,organised and run by the TDC and the military.
Full costings were prepared and it was the consenus of opinion by the TDC Board that the whole plan would never be cost effective.It therefore never again saw the light of day.
Why therefore was it ever built? Perhaps EU money being wasted again.
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One train a week during the first year at an expense of £7.75 million. Surely there must have been a business plan and case put forward to justify such expenditure. Were local manufacturers / business`s not consulted to whether there was a need for a rail freight terminal. Lets hope that the “significant announcements” that are due amount to more than one train per week.
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I drive past the railfreight terminal everyday. Since an article was in the Shropshire Star last June/July saying how successful it was and trumpeting the fact that a Telford company had at last used it to transport their goods, not one single freight train has gone in or out of the terminal. The same passenger train and rusting rolling stock have been sat there for the last 6 months. I’m assuming the rent they get from parking them there is more than the money they whould be bringing in by getting firms to use it for what it was intended. How on earth did they get the funding to build it before finding out if the market was there to sustain it?? What an absolute waste of money and i hope and pray that whoever did the deal in the first place hasn’t made any other brilliant decisions on our behalf.
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I drive past the correctly identified ‘White Elephant every day, sometimes several times a dfay, and I have yet to see an active goods train on the site at all !!! Certainly you’ll never see a queue of HGV’s patiently waiting to load or unload their cargo for its onward journey as was eagerly sold to us when then site was planned.
That said, how much effort has been put into promoting the facility to a regional or national level and for a continued amount of time …. it’s all very well having the terminal in place – but if it’s not pushed repeadtedly under the noses of potential customers/users, they simply won’t be encouraged to change their current distribution policies.
For the last few months it seems to have been turned sadly into a great rail-coach graveyard, filled with nothing but scrap metal on wheels.
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Millions spent on an unused frieght terminal. Millions spent on road improvements that cause gridlock and total confusion.
Telford an Wrekin coucil sure knows innovative ways how to waste public money
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Gridlock ??
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The Tory led government preaches about austerity and the local Tory/Lib Dem council seem to be more interested in burning local taxpayers money. An unused freight terminal, the new council palace at Southgate.
How long before they start telling us they need to cut back on services and put up our council tax? What fresh ways to waste our money will they come up with?
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“How long before they start telling us they need to cut back on services”
It’s happening. Go to their website and see if you agree with their proposed cuts.
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It is not a Tory LibDem council. You aren’t a local, I presume, Benj?
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I’m not sure where the Lib Dems stand now, but it’s certainly a Tory-led council.
Can I suggest that talk of party politics is irrelevant, seeing as the scheme was originally proposed and approved by a Labour Council, under a Labour government, then became reality (I use the word in its loosest possible sense) under the control of a Tory-led council (still under a Labour government at the time it was opened).
I’d still like to know where the traffic to justify this project is supposed to come from – perhaps there’s a good reason for this being the ony facility of its kind west of Brirmingham.How does Eric Carter know that “A facility like this……takes up to five years to establish itself”?
What is he comparing it with?
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I heard a rumour that the funding for the service was in place, but got ‘borrowed’ by the previous administration for other, more pressing needs. That was why the line started at the old Stafford Junction in Wellington and finished at Haybridge so it would look as if something had been done.
This delayed the launch of the project so it was opened in a time of economic downturn.
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Bob Groom was elected to the council mainly on a platform of ‘don’t build this pointless and expensive white elephant’.
Enough people obviously voted for him to show that they got the point – pity no-one with clout listened to him and his electors.
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As a tax payer, may I ask Mr Sinclair to take a long train ride?
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http://www.shropshirestar.com/shropshire-business/2010/06/30/telford-railfreight-terminal-handles-50-trains-in-first-year/
This link is from a Shropshire Star article in June last year saying how successful the terminal’s been. Since the article as me and several other people posting have said NOTHING has gone in our out of the terminal so add another 180 days onto the figure in the headline above. 1 train every 10 days – brilliant!! That’s 40 times less than they’d promised. Incidentally who are we paying to manage and support the terminal and what on earth have they been doing for the last 6 months while it’s been used as a train park?
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thought it would of been more useful to of connected it to the mainline at stafford and stuck a station in at newport, then it might get some use.
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I really support the train station, give it time it will be a roaring success, its a great concept,
how many people have moaned about HGV’s on the motorway ? this is the alternative, its greener, cleaner, cheaper and better all round by a mile
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