Doncaster International Railport

Coordinates: 53°30′24″N 1°07′31″W / 53.50676°N 1.12535°W / 53.50676; -1.12535

Not to be confused with the Doncaster Inland Port, Rossington

Doncaster International Railport, sometimes referred to as Doncaster Europort is a 5 ha (50,000 m²) intermodal rail terminal in Doncaster, England, located on the East Coast Main Line in Doncaster close to the M18 motorway and its junction with the A1(M) road. It was built in 1995 as part of a 26 acres (110,000 m²) development site originally known as Direct for Europe Doncaster.

History

At the end of the 19th the site of the Doncaster railport was primarily in agricultural use;^[1] to the south the Great Northern Railway (GNR) main line had been built during the 1850s, and to the west of the site a large engine shed (Doncaster Carr shed) was constructed for the GNR in the 1870s;^[1] a small engine shed was built at the northwestern corner of the site in the later part of the 19th century.^{[note 1]} (extant until the 1970s.^[1]) During the 20th century the area was increasingly taken into railway use, mainly sidings (Decoy Sidings).^[1]

In 1989 after the passing of the Channel Tunnel Act 1987 Doncaster was put forward as a site for a rail terminal for Channel tunnel freight.^[4] The site was promoted by Neil Worthington (Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council) and backed by Mabon, subsidiary of Dutch company Hollandsche Beton Groep, and Kyle Stewart Properties. Initial expectations were for over 200,000t of cargo per annum, and create 150 jobs directly.^[5] In June 1992 Kyle Stuart was awarded the contract to develop the terminal - in addition to the rail terminal up to 100,000 m² (120,000 sq yd) of factory/warehousing space had been given planning permission.^[6]

In 1994 construction began on the £5million pound Direct for Europe project; the terminal was one of several built to serve expected international freight trains resulting from the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994.^{[7][note 2]}

The 3.3 ha (33,000 m²) railport was opened in December 1995 by HRH The Princess Royal; it was equipped with two reception sidings and four terminal sidings and capable of handling train lengths of 750m; and was built with car handling and storage facilities.^[4][8] the site was built close to extensive marshalling sidings.^[1][4] As a channel tunnel freight terminal it was built with additional security measures to comply with the Channel Tunnel Security Order of 1994.^[4]

The rail site was operated by Applied Distribution Ltd.;^[4] in 1996/7 Tibbett and Britten acquired the rail terminal operation business.^[4][9]

In the late 1990s the site was handling ~ 12,500 containers per year, including a plastic polymer flow from ICI Wilton (Teesside) to the DuPont fibre plant in Doncaster, and intermodal traffic via seaports, but with little Channel tunnel trade. Trains were operated by Freightliner and EWS.^[4] GB Railfreight began running a service from the Port of Felixstowe in 2006.^[10]

In 2008 Freightliner took over running of the rail terminal from Tibbett & Britain successor DHL Exel Supply Chain;^[11] by 2008 the terminal had increased its throughput to 37,000 containers per year.^[12]

Notes

References