Rail freight traffic through the Daventry railport on the 365-acres DIRFT Logistics Park is reaching new records, providing encouraging news for the park’s developer, Seven Trent Property, who has been given the Government go-ahead for a major expansion programme.
Tibbett & Britten, which operates the railport, reports that three times as many trains a day are passing through compared with a year ago at the height of the Channel Tunnel problems when immigrants were illegally entering the country hidden on freight trains. Volumes of traffic have risen by more than 50% in the past few months with daily services now operating between Daventry and Scotland, and between Felixstowe and Southampton, apart from the Channel Tunnel traffic to and from Belgium and Italy.
A delighted Paul Ludlow, managing director of Severn Trent Property, says: “The railport is an integral part of DIRFT Logistics Park, which has attracted a number of high profile occupiers who regularly use rail for transporting goods throughout the UK and aboard. It is also a boost of confidence for the park which is increasing in importance as a centre of England distribution location – both for road and rail.” The developer is currently preparing plans for the future expansion of the park by 133 acres, approved last month. More than 90% of the 180,000sq m distribution and manufacturing floorspace proposed will be capable of direct rail connection to the existing railport.
Tibbett & Britten says: “We have seen significant volume growth, mainly in UK traffic, and our hopes are that Channel Tunnel traffic will pick up in 2004. We hope shortly to announce a potential new service from a South Coast port.”
The Strategic Council on Security Technology has rolled out Phase Two of the Smart and Secure Tradelanes (SST) initiative. In the past year, SST has become the largest cargo security program in operation, helping global shippers to automatically track the location and status of containers while creating a system to detect and report container tampering.
The second phase of SST focuses on further expansion of the global network, extending operations, shipments, and integration into existing supply chain systems while incorporating new technologies such as sensor- equipped smart containers into global supply chain systems.
SST is an industry-funded supply chain security and efficiency initiative founded on the premise that the considerable gaps in global supply chain security put prosperity, free trade, and economic development at risk. In response, the SST industry consortium has pursued solutions that provide economic incentives to finding, innovating, and implementing security solutions.
SST includes more than 65 participating companies representing each link in the supply chain and is the largest commercial supply chains security project ever undertaken. The first phase of SST focused on
operational and economic results.
