Resultados de los ensayos de la Resistencia a Flexión

A network of strategically located and fully equipped transfer terminals (variously called, in industry jargon, freight interchanges, Euro-terminals, international freight villages/hubs, multimodal transport/

distribution parks, or some combination of these terms) served by adequate access routes for heavy lorries, and linked to main-line rail, in the UK and across Europe, is critical to the development of international combined transport operations. Additionally, with increasing transfer of freight to the inland waterways as an alternative to rail, there is need also for similarly strategic waterway terminals. These terminals are the principal interface between the modes, where road meets rail or waterway. Essential to the whole operation at this point is the availability of five basic ingredients:

● Strategic location to serve key industrial and commercial catchment areas.

● Adequate road access for heavy freight traffic.

● Direct links into the international rail freight network.

● Secure space for container/swap body storage, and vehicle manoeuvring.

● Suitable equipment for effecting quick and efficient transfer between road and rail, and road and waterway vessel.

Britain’s rail network operator Network Rail has published as part of its ‘Guide to Railfreight’ a definition of common types of rail terminals. These include: private sidings and common-user terminals (Figure 11.1).

11.5.1 Private sidings

Rail terminals are a loading pad, warehouse, or factory connected to the national rail network. This enables rail freight services direct access to the point of despatch or receipt, removing the need for additional road movements, which may significantly increase the overall transport cost. Such savings must be balanced against the costs of developing, operating, and maintaining a private siding.

11.5.2 Common-user terminals

These may share some of the features of private sidings, but are distinguished by their accessibility to more than one customer. A number of these terminals are available within Great Britain and continental 142 Intermodal networks and freight interchanges

Fig. 11.1. Typical combined transport terminal: Cologne, Germany (Source: German Railways DB).

Europe, and include rail-linked warehousing and intermodal transfer facilities. These are typically oper-ated by the freight operating companies or third-party logistics providers.

In the UK a number of regional freight interchanges are the focal points of the rail freight network.

These are complemented by private company sidings and automotive distribution centres. Additionally, a number of private enterprise intermodal terminal projects are at various stages of planning and development.

European States such as France, Italy, and Germany, among others, are investing heavily in both new inter-modal infrastructures and expanding and upgrading existing, traditional, rail freight facilities to cater for combined road–rail traffic. Germany, for example, in a long-term programme intended to drive more freight traffic from the roads and on to rail, is developing a country-wide network of 44 intermodal freight terminals, all with direct access to the national rail network and international services. While many of these involve improvement of existing rail freight facilities to intermodal standard, others are new devel-opments including eight completely new sites in eastern Germany. These will be mainly partnership or co-operation projects between the state railways Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB), via subsidiary Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft SchieneStrasse (DUSS), and intermodal centre management organizations.

Switzerland has a new (opened 2004) intermodal terminal at Wiler, near Utzenstorf, south-east of Solothurn mainly intended to handle unaccompanied intermodal transport units such as semi-trailers and swap bodies transported without tractive unit or driver. Here the objective is to remove some 1.2 million truck kilometres annually from Swiss roads and for road hauliers, by switching to rail, they can avoid the Swiss LSVA (mileage-based truck tax) as well as the LKW Maut motorway tax in Germany and a simi-lar road tax in Austria.

In France, state railways, Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) (Fret, the freight division), with state aid, invested heavily in equipping terminals and preparing suitable rail trunk routes for combined

transport, believing that the volume of traffic consigned by this means will grow rapidly in the coming years. Together with other European railways SNCF is planning to equip 30 main routes, all with strong road–rail traffic potential, to form a true European intermodal network. Typical of these developments is a relatively new terminal 20 kilometres south of Lille in Northern France where the ‘Delta 3 multimodal handling platform’ went online in December 2003. This so-called trimodal logistics complex is claimed to form an efficient interface between road, rail, and water transport. Delta 3 has its own access point on the A-1 Paris–Lille motorway in the immediate vicinity, which crosses the A-21 close by. This is the main route between the Channel Tunnel and Brussels via Calais, Douai and Valenciennes. The terminal is directly connected to the main north–south line between Paris and Lille and the east–west Lens-Ostricourt line, and is located close to their intersection. The site also borders the Valenciennes–

Dunkerque Canal, which allows the passage of ships of up to 3000 tonnes.

In March 2004, the UK Strategic Rail Authority published its Rail Freight Interchange Policy which, in its Foreword, it said:

The success and growth of rail freight can only be sustained if there are enough Rail Freight Interchanges to enable modal shift. Rail freight interchanges have an important role to play whether they are terminals for aggregates or waste, sub-regional interchanges or other rail served industrial facilities and should be encouraged in the planning process, in accordance with Government policy. However, this Policy is concerned with a particu-lar class of interchange, the Strategic Rail Freight Interchange. They are needed in rela-tively small numbers to serve major conurbations and are key to delivering growth of rail in the general freight market. These interchanges are long-term strategic infrastructure investments with operating lives going beyond 2020 with rail infrastructure, container handling and rail-connected warehousing, on a sufficient scale to enable critical mass for consolidation of trainload freight. By creating facilities on a scale, which effectively creates a rail connected distribution park or ‘village’, a wide range of businesses in the general freight market will be encouraged to locate their logistics operations, or produc-tion, where they have the option of rail or road transport. This also has the economic bene-fit of reducing the viable distance of the rail trunk movement, improving competitiveness with road, by locating businesses with direct access to rail, taking out the ‘last mile’ double handling and transport cost. In the longer term these interchanges will make a major, essential, contribution to developing the national strategic rail freight network linking, rail freight interchanges of all types, ports, and the Channel Tunnel, connected by a range of competitive rail operator services.

The policy document gives details for a number of examples of UK freight interchanges that are included in the following list:

● Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) (adjacent to junction 18 on the M1 motorway)

144 Intermodal networks and freight interchanges

● The Midlands Channel Tunnel Rail Freight Terminal, within the Hams Hall National Distribution Park (near Coleshill, Birmingham)

● Direct for Europe Railport (Doncaster)

● Cardiff International Rail freight Terminal (CIRFT)

● Potter Group (Selby).

11.5.2.1 Wakefield Euro-port

International combined road–rail services from the Wakefield Euro-port via the Channel Tunnel began in January 1996. This terminal is a joint venture between the rail operator, EWS, and the local council (City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council), which invested £18 million in the scheme (£3.5 million of which was from EU funding). Being strategically located near to both the M1 and M62 (adjacent to junc-tion 31) motorways and the A1 trunk route, close to the Leeds/Bradford conurbajunc-tion, it serves Yorkshire, Humberside and north-east England. The international intermodal rail terminal is incorporated within a 137 hectares (338 acres) freight village which will provide a range of facilities such as offices, retail premises, an hotel, truckstops, leisure, and support facilities (such as international freight forwarders).

With an annual handling capacity of up to 175 000 containers and swap bodies, the terminal provides direct access to the European rail network.

11.5.2.2 Manchester: Trafford Park

A joint venture between the rail operators (EWS and Freightliner) and Trafford Park Development Corporation, this terminal opened in 1993 on a 20-acre site 6 miles to the south-west of Manchester close to the M63 motorway which is directly linked with the M62, M6, M56, and M61 motorways. It has an annual throughput capacity of 100 000 containers and swap bodies.

11.5.2.3 Birmingham: Landor Street

This Freightliner 110 000 annual capacity terminal is located just 2 miles east of Birmingham city centre, on the inner ring road with direct access to the A38 trunk route linking with the M6, M5, M42, and M40 motorways.

11.5.2.4 Glasgow: Mossend

Scotland’s Euro-central rail freight terminal at Mossend in Lanakshire is a new (1994) £8.6 million development equipped to handle up to 74 000 unitized loads each year. It has direct links to the A8 and the M8 motorway and is only 10 kilometres from the M73 and M74 motorways.

11.5.2.5 London: Willesden

Developed from the old Freightliner terminal with a £10 million investment this terminal located at Willesden in north London has capacity to handle 184 000 containers/swap bodies annually. This ter-minal houses a purpose-built facility for HM Customs and Excise where suspect wagons, separated from trains, will be inspected for contraband.

11.5.2.6 Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal

The DIRFT operated by Tibbett & Britten is a Channel Tunnel multimodal rail terminal with 147 hectares of rail-related space to accommodate associated distribution developments. It is located adjacent to junction 18 on the M1 motorway (to which it is linked by a dual carriageway road), just south of the M1/M6

motorway intersection and the A1/M1 link road, on the electrified West Coast Main rail freight Line (WCML), which links the north-west and midlands to the Channel Tunnel, and which forms part of the EU’s defined combined transport network. The terminal has a capacity to handle up to 1 million tonnes of freight annually, with five reception sidings and accommodation which allows for the loading/unload-ing of two full-length (i.e. up to 40 wagons) intermodal trains simultaneously.

11.5.2.7 Midlands Channel Tunnel Rail Freight Terminal: Hams Hall

Contained within the Trafalgar House/Powergen sponsored National Distribution Park at Hams Hall near Coleshill, Birmingham, the Midlands Channel Tunnel Rail Freight Terminal provides intermodal facil-ities for Midlands firms shipping to continental European markets. The site has good access to the Midlands motorway network, being close to the M42 motorway (junction 9) and the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR), and just 19 kilometres from Birmingham city centre. It is on the Birmingham to Nuneaton rail line, with 9-foot 6 inch-high container links to the port of Felixstowe, close to the West Coast Main Line.

11.5.2.8 Doncaster International Railport

Operated by Tibbett & Britten, Doncaster International Railport, which opened in December 1995, serves manufacturers and importers across Yorkshire, Humberside and the North Midlands, and offers direct access to the East Coast Main Line and Channel Tunnel. Trains take around 36 hours (two nights and a day) to reach the industrial centres in the south of France, east of Spain and north of Italy. The compre-hensively equipped multi-user Railport boasts a total of 3 kilometres of track and has two reception sid-ings and four terminal sidsid-ings, allowing two trains each 600 metres long to be handled one after the other.

11.5.2.9 Cardiff International Rail Freight Terminal

Specialist distribution company Helios Properties is developing a site at Wentloog near Cardiff for its

£25 million, CIRFT scheme. The proposed development of the 400 000 square feet project, situated adja-cent to the existing rail freight terminal, is due to commence in the summer of 2005.

11.5.2.10 UK’s European Freight Operating Centres

The UK’s rail freight terminals are controlled from two European Freight Operating Centres located at Wembley in north London and at Dollands Moor, near Folkestone in Kent. Wembley fulfils a key role as a hub for Channel Tunnel freight. Here trains received from the UK regional terminals, most with loads for several countries, are resectioned into direct international block trains for direct transit to their European destinations, an operation normally taking no more about 1 hour. Where sufficient traffic volumes are gen-erated to make it viable, single-destination block trains may be formed at regional terminals to run direct to a European location. The Wembley site can currently handle up to 70 (35 each way) international timetabled, full-length Channel Tunnel trains (up to 750 metres long), on a daily basis. It comprises three main operational areas: a group of 12 arrival and departure sidings, six secondary sorting sidings, seven train assembly sidings and four locomotive and customs sidings. There are 16 kilometres of track, 70 sets of points and 60 sets of signals, all controlled from a new signalling control centre that oversees all move-ments within the site. The 40-acre high security complex at Dollands Moor, located 3-kilometre west of the Channel Tunnel portal at Folkestone, controls through-Tunnel rail freight traffic. Trains pause here to await their allocated ‘path’ through the Tunnel and to undergo any necessary safety and security checks.

This site, which has sophisticated intruder warning systems and closed-circuit TV surveillance (with more than 100 closed-circuit TV cameras), can handle up to eight international freight trains an hour (four in each direction) in sidings equipped with inspection roadways linked by an access subway.

146 Intermodal networks and freight interchanges

11.6 The EC’s 2004 list of 30 TEN-T projects