Rail Minister opens new rail head

Honda’s car factory in Swindon has begun exporting cars by rail to allow faster transportation of vehicles and reduce the associated environmental impact.

Almost 3,000 trucks a year will be taken off the road following the re-opening of an existing rail head next to the Honda of the UK Manufacturing site at Swindon. Replacing trucks with trains will halve the annual CO2 emissions for one of the key deliveries into Europe.*

The rail head was officially opened earlier today by Rail Minister, Under-Secretary of State, Lord Andrew Adonis.

Up to two trains a week will run from the rail head, with each service transporting over 200 Swindon-built cars to Honda’s European Vehicle Logistics Operations in Gent, Belgium. It’s estimated around 23,000 cars will be exported this way over the course of a year.

“We export Civics and CR-Vs built in Swindon to 60 countries across Europe,” says Simon Stacy, Manager – Logistics Operations at Honda Motor Europe. “The new rail head and the service it allows will not only deliver Honda cars into Europe faster, but will minimise the amount of trucks travelling in and out of the factory.”

The new rail freight terminal links directly to the Honda facility, and has been developed by Kilbride Group. Vehicle logistics company STVA operates the movement service for Honda.

“This new rail option achieves operational improvements combined with quality service delivery,” says Ian Brown, Managing Director of STVA. “It demonstrates that rail can meet a transport logistics challenge while simultaneously minimising environmental impact.”

“We are delighted to have provided the infrastructure to enable Honda to move cars by rail through the Channel Tunnel to mainland Europe. The Kilbride Swindon Terminal represents another investment in rail freight infrastructure on behalf of a major industrial customer by the Kilbride Group, following on from the Jaguar Castle Bromwich facility,” said Colin Banyard, Chairman, Kilbride Group.

“Kilbride has carried out both these projects with Legal and General, which are the first two within the £150m Sustainable Development fund set up with Legal and General in April 2007.”


Notes:

• *According to STVA figures
• Honda (UK) already transports cars to Newcastle and Scotland by rail (via Bristol).
• Trains leaving the new rail head in Swindon will carry mostly 5-door and 3-door hatchback Civic models on double-decks
• Up to 243 cars can be transported with each train service
• One road truck can transport eight cars
• One train service could effectively take 30 trucks off the road
• Each train leaves Swindon at approximately 4pm and arrives at Gent, Belgium at 7am the next morning

TOV Note:
• Honda produces about 200k cars in Swindon each year, among which about 100-150k are exported to other European countries by different means.

Last edited by JeffX on October 30, 2008 09:13