Humber Express, a partnership between DFDS, one of Europe’s leading ferry and providers, and iPort Rail, the UK’s most advanced multimodal logistics hub, has created a link to the Port of Immingham with the capacity to move 80 containers per day.
Containers will arrive at Immingham by ship from destinations worldwide carrying a wide variety of goods.
They will be loaded directly onto the train at the port before being moved by rail to Doncaster and from there to onwards destinations across the country. At the same time, goods from across the UK can arrive in Doncaster for transit to Immingham and onward to DFDS European network destinations.
Services will run in both directions twice a day with capacity for 80 containers every 24 hours.
Announcing the launch of the service, Steve Freeman, managing director of iPort Rail, said: “Rail is already a greener alternative for moving goods long distance by road and is being adopted by more businesses to help make their supply chains more sustainable. It also has an important role to play in keeping goods moving while the road haulage industry is under such pressure.”
Immingham is the fourth biggest port in the UK when measured by the number of units that cross the quayside.
In 2020, Immingham and Grimsby handled over 10% of all the units moved in and out of the UK, behind Dover, Felixstowe and London. Whilst Felixstowe and London have regular and essential unitised rail services to and from their ports, Immingham has only moved bulk or break-bulk products by rail, until now.
Andrew Byrne, managing director of DFDS in Immingham, said: “With tens of thousands of containers, tank containers and trade vehicles moving in and out of the Port of Immingham every year the fact none of these are moved by rail is something that has long needed addressing.”
