'Big box' rail line is on the right track; TRANSPORT: Freight project takes lorries off the roads and protects 100 jobs.

Byline: Jenny Waddington

A REGIONAL rail project is going full speed ahead following the successful creation of a new freight line in north Warwickshire.

The scheme in Birch Coppice connected a freight terminal to the main rail arteries for the handling of 'big box' containers.

The pounds 2.7 million project, which has eliminated thousands of lorry journeys and safeguarded more than 100 jobs, saw Network Rail replace drainage and lower the railway track under two listed bridges in the Whitacre Heath area to enable the haulage of the larger ISO High Cube 9'6" 'big box' containers by rail to the Birmingham International Freight Terminal at Birch Coppice, close to the M42 in north Warwickshire.

The project is the first to receive support from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands' pounds 14 million Regional Infrastructure Fund - a catalyst to lever additional funding into projects that might not otherwise be delivered in current market conditions, and one of four key programmes announced during the Cabinet visit to the region last autumn.

Advantage West Midlands invested pounds 1 million in the north Warwickshire project.

Work started on site in January and was finished in four months with the first train travelling along the line on May 11.

Freightliner immediately introduced a new 'big box' service between its Lawley Street terminal and Birch Coppice, instantly reducing the number of lorries on the road.

There are also proposals to introduce further services from Felixstowe, which will reduce carbon emissions and road congestion even further.

Jo Kaye, route director said: "This is a great example of our determination to get more freight off the roads and onto our rail network."

Darren Cope, partnerships manager at Advantage West Midlands, said: "Transport is one of the key priorities of the West Midlands Economic Strategy.

"And this project and the investment by Advantage West Midlands will have a positive impact on the region's transport network.

"Companies in the West Midlands and around north Warwickshire will be less dependent on road freight transport to move goods and will be helped to maintain a competitive edge with a greener and more efficient logistics solution.

"The cost of fuel and congestion means that we are increasingly looking to rail freight as a means of transport and there is a real need for this kind of facility in the West Midlands..

"Rail solutions are once again the way forward.

"It is important that we are able to react on behalf of business and ensure that major infrastructure can be put into place to support them in their international trade.

"The benefits of this project have been felt almost instantaneously and have exceeded expectations in that more than 300 lorry loads are already being transported regularly by rail instead of by road.

"The future of the terminal at Birch Coppice has been secured with 120 jobs safeguarded, while our transport infrastructure has been further modernised and carbon dioxide emissions reduced, by 963 tonnes over three years and 4,000 tonnes over ten years, which are all fantastic results..

"Advantage West Midlands will continue to invest in projects and programmes which deliver the greatest economic impact." Roadway Containers Limited also contributed pounds 120,000 funding to the works.

This forms part of a complex project which aims to clear routes from the container ports of Southampton and Felixstowe to the inland terminals in the West Midlands including BIFT.

Network Rail is tasked with delivering the pounds 55 million scheme and is carrying out work at 55 sites between Southampton and Nuneaton to enable the larger, modern containers preferred by many global shipping firms to be efficiently transported by rail across the whole of the UK..

CAPTION(S):

KEY PLAYERS .... Steven Fisher and Charles Varey, from Network Rail, with Helen Krowiak, transport policy advisor for Advantage West Midlands, David Turner, the Birch Coppice site manager, and Darren Cope, the partnerships manager at AWM