Gauging the capacity needs of rail customers

This is especially true in the intermodal sector, where the size of box and wagon combination can have a major impact on the routes available, the location of available terminals and the ability to find diversionary routes to provide a round-the-clock service and make the best use of the network.

Developers of terminals, rail-connected ports and so on, also need to know that particular sizes of boxes can be accommodated on routes to and from their facilities, and wagon manufacturers need this information to enable them to design wagons for particular combinations of cargo, box and gauge.

It all sounds like a complicated affair, but it is a vital one in increasing shippers’ confidence in the sector and, ultimately, growing the use of rail freight in the UK.

Although there is already a network of routes capable of taking 9ft 6in boxes on standard flat wagons, it needs to be increased. Take for instance the upgrading work at Southampton that is connecting high-cube boxes to the West Midlands Main Line, as part of the Strategic Freight Network.

New wagons, the first pioneered by WH Davies, are being developed to carry 9ft 6in boxes on a wider range of routes covering much of the country – but, again, designers need to know exactly how big, or small, the gauge is for which they have to design their wagons.

There have been a number of failures by Network Rail (NR) to provide correct information on gauge, and several embarrassing mistakes, when the overall gauging map used by NR, the Department for Transport (DfT) and others, was found to be wrong.

The result of which was that the map had to be withdrawn. However, after some strong lobbying from the industry and the Rail Freight Group, and pressure from the Office of Rail Regulation, the company is making good progress in providing up-to-date information on the gauge of every route, as well as other useful information on axle loadings and so on.

This is now available on NR’s National Electronic Sectional Appendix (NESA). Any industry stakeholder can use it, on application to www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/5004.aspx.

NESA gives gauge information on every route. In a few months, NR will have another programme which will give customers and freight operating companies the gauges for any route by just inputting origins and destinations.

If you want to know the gauge to which NR is committed to providing under its regulatory review at April 2009, visit www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/5523.aspx, which sets out the characteristics of the network, including gauge, that NR is funded to maintain.

If a route is found to have degraded since this date and information, NR has committed to reinstating it in a timely manner, if a customer wants to make use of the baseline capability.

So there is now good progress; the programmes are not that user-friendly but they do work and do provide the facility for stakeholders to undertake some basic planning work before getting into detailed discussions with NR and train operators.

Meanwhile, on the ground, work is progressing well on creating the Southampton to West Midlands route to W10, allowing 9ft 6in boxes on standard flat wagons.

Southampton Tunnel works are now complete, and NR and contractor Carillion managed to do much of the work on track-lowering while keeping one track operational.

Further bridges on the route are due for treatment over the coming months, either by demolition and rebuild or track-lowering, so it is hoped to have the complete route ready for these high-gauge trains by early 2011.