First rail freight service on High Speed 1 will be launched by DB Schenker Rail in November

Trading links between Poland and the UK are to be strengthened during November with the introduction of regular European sized rail freight services by DB Schenker Rail.

One train per week will operate between Wroclaw, in Poland, and Barking, London, in the UK. Demand from customers has been high resulting in strong orders for the new service being received from the automotive, retail and food sectors.

The first train will depart Poland on the evening of 08 November arriving into the UK in the early hours of 11 November. The train will leave the UK the same day to transport goods to Poland on the return journey.

The service will be the first regular rail freight service to use the High Speed 1 rail route, the only European sized railway in the UK. As a result, the train will be loaded with European sized curtain sided swap bodies.

The significantly larger haulage capacity available from these swap bodies, with an internal height of three meters, means two standard pallets can be transported stacked on top of each other. This provides an efficient and economic means of transporting the maximum amount of product per train.

The services have been introduced utilising DB Schenker Rail’s pan European rail freight network, offering customers integrated logistics solutions across the whole of Europe.

Alain Thauvette, Chief Executive of DB Schenker Rail UK, said: “Strong European rail freight trading links are essential for economic development and to encourage modal shift from road to rail. The introduction of this new rail freight service between Poland and the UK will be the first of a number of such trains, which utilise the DB Schenker Rail pan European network. This is an important step for rail freight in Europe, as a new market has been developed and a new trading route opened.”

Carsten Hinne, Managing Director Logistics of DB Schenker Rail UK, said: “We will work with our customers in the UK to demonstrate the haulage benefits of using the High Speed 1 rail route to trade with mainland Europe. Demand from the UK for these services is high and we expect to introduce a number of additional trains using the High Speed 1 route during 2012.”

The work to introduce rail freight services onto High Speed 1 has been supported by the European Commission’s Marco Polo programme.