Types of Terminal
Single customer terminals
Of the operational terminals, a large percentage especially in the traditional industries are dedicated to single customers and single flows of traffic. These have facilities tailored to the needs of specific flows of traffic - hopper loading and discharging points for coal and aggregates at quarries and power stations or ISO tank loading at chemical plants and docks as examples.
Single operator terminals
Strictly speaking all terminals beside privately owned sidings are ‘open access’ meaning they can be serviced by any freight operating company.
In reality individual freight operating companies have built their businesses around a network of different interchanges and hubs driven by the needs of the different markets they’ve traditionally served.
Although individual freight operating companies are diversifying the services they provide and increasingly competing for business in the same market, few terminals are shared.
Independent Service Providers
A network of privately owned and operated terminals exists that provides intermodal handling facilities, rail-connected warehousing and transshipment and are not tied to individual customers or freight operating companies. In the main these have developed through third party logistics operators taking the opportunity to develop on redundant ‘brown field’ rail sites and re-establish rail connection as market demand and opportunity has arisen, or as a result of regional investment and economic development projects through local and regional bodies.
The operators of these terminals are generally willing to accept rail services from multiple freight operating companies and offer an extensive range of added value services including warehousing, stock management, order picking, packing and onward distribution.
There is also a growing trend from port operators to diversify their services and utilise their often-considerable rail connected land, warehousing and infrastructure resources to meet local and regional distribution needs of land based transport in addition to sea.
Freight Villages
There is a growing trend to establish ‘design and build’ rail connected distribution parks or freight villages. Generally driven by the bigger commercial property companies they are modelled closely on the traditional distribution park and can provide facilities for large footprint rail connected warehouses on a typical lease type basis. Intermodal handling is often provided on a common user basis at these sites.
Other Sidings
In addition to the above there are hundreds of connections into the UK network both maintained or mothballed which could give access for freight. Although some may be of specific interest when looking for direct factory connection, time and social development has left many of these sidings with very little useful accompanying land or good road access for effective use.
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