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North Rail Terminal to double rail capacity at UK port
The Port of Felixstowe has officially opened a new rail terminal which doubles rail capacity at the UK’s largest box facility.
The port’s new North Rail Terminal was inaugurated at a ceremony last week with His Royal Highness the Duke of York, KG, in attendance alongside local dignitaries and a large number of the port’s customers.
The £40 million investment is part of a scheme to increase capacity at the Port of Felixstowe that includes the new Berths 8&9, which opened in November 2011.
“Rail is becoming the mode of choice for an increasing number of shipping lines, forwarders and shippers to move their goods to and from ports,” said the CEO of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, the owner of the Port of Felixstowe, Clemence Cheng.
“It provides cost, environmental and reliability benefits for many customers and the Port of Felixstowe offers more rail services, to more destinations, more often than any other UK port.”
The new rail terminal, co-financed by the European Union Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) programme, allows the port to accommodate trains of up to 35-wagons length. 10 kilometres of new track has been laid for the terminal which provides nine additional tracks, making a total of 20 tracks on the port – more than London’s King’s Cross station.
“The new North Rail Terminal will increase still further our rail capability. By allowing us to run longer trains, as well as more of them, it will allow users of the port to improve the efficiency of their supply chains and at the same time reducing cost for them.”