Doncaster iPort or Doncaster Inland Port is an intermodal rail terminal; a ''Strategic Rail Freight Interchange'', under construction in
Rossington
Rossington is a civil parish and former mining village in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England and is surrounded by countryside and the market towns of Bawtry and Tickhill.
Geography
Historically part of the West R ...
,
Doncaster
Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...
at junction 3 of the
M18 motorway in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is to be connected to the rail network via the line of the former
South Yorkshire Joint Railway
The South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Midland Railway and the North Eastern Railway to oversee the constructio ...
, and from an extension of the former
Rossington Colliery branch from the
East Coast Main Line.
The development includes a intermodal rail terminal to be built on
green belt
A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...
land, of which over was to be developed into warehousing, making it the largest rail terminal in Yorkshire; the development also included over of countryside, the majority of which was to remain in agricultural use, with other parts used for landscaping, and habitat creation as part of environment mitigation measures.
History
In 2006 developer
HelioSlough began a public consultation around their proposals to create a rail freight depot west of Rossington.
In 2007 the ''Rossington Eco Town Partnership'', an association of Rossington Forward, Rossington Development Trust, and local landowners and property developers
UK Coal
UK Coal Production Ltd, formerly UK Coal plc, was the largest coal mining business in the United Kingdom. The company was based in Harworth, in Nottinghamshire. The company was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The successor company that co ...
,
Persimmon Homes
Persimmon plc is a British housebuilding company, headquartered in York, England. The company is named after a horse which won the 1896 Derby and St. Leger for the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII). It is listed on the London Stock Ex ...
,
Helios Properties and Rossington Hall Ltd. presented plans to build a large '
eco town' development over a 20-year timespan of ten to fifteen thousand homes on land to the south and west of
Rossington
Rossington is a civil parish and former mining village in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England and is surrounded by countryside and the market towns of Bawtry and Tickhill.
Geography
Historically part of the West R ...
. The plan included redevelopment of the
Rossington Colliery site, and included as part of the employment proposals the plan from Helios Properties for an
Inland port
An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port.
Examples
The United States Army Corps of Engineers pub ...
. The development, which would have used significant amounts of agricultural land was opposed by a large majority of local residents. The project was shortlisted as one of 15 potential sites in the UK for a new town development in 2008, by 2009 the scope of the plan had been reduced to a five thousand home 'eco-village'.
In 2009 developer HelioSlough submitted a planning application for a $516 million rail terminal with of warehousing; the plan represented the largest rail logistics development in Yorkshire, and was to be operated and part funded by
Hutchinson Ports. The application, which included development on
green belt
A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...
land was approved by
Doncaster Council
City of Doncaster Council is the local authority of the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, based at the Doncaster Civic Office in Waterdale, central Doncaster. It is one of four local authories in South Yorkshire and provides the ma ...
but opposed by the
Campaign to Protect Rural England
CPRE, The Countryside Charity, formerly known by names such as the ''Council for the Preservation of Rural England'' and the ''Council for the Protection of Rural England'', is a charity in England with over 40,000 members and supporters. Forme ...
, and four parish councils. In January 2010 local MPs
Caroline Flint
Caroline Louise Flint (born 20 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley from 1997 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she attended the Cabinet of the United Kingdom as Minister for Hous ...
(
Don Valley) and
Jeffrey Ennis (
Barnsley East and Mexborough) voiced their support for the plan.
[Sources:
*
*
*] In March 2010 the UK government decided that no public enquiry would be needed for the project.
In June 2011 developers Helios Europe, Shepherd Aligned and
SEGRO entered into a joint agreement to develop the site, which would be road connected via the £18 million
Finningley and Rossington Regeneration Route Scheme (FARRRS) road scheme, and be built for international trade, with customs clearance. In September 2011 planning consent was given for the rail port; construction of the facility was initially planned to begin in 2012.
The tendering process for a rail operator of the port was begun in 2012:
DB Schenker Rail UK,
ABP,
Stobart Group
Esken Limited (), formerly Stobart Group Limited, is a British infrastructure, aviation and energy company, with operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company is registered in Guernsey but has its operational head office in Lond ...
and
Freightliner were listed as potential operators.
Hutchinson Whampoa had also been reported as a potential rail operator in 2011.
In 2013 the successor company to Helios Europe,
Verdion obtained financial backing for its projects through
Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). HOOPP planned to invest €1 billion in European logistics facilities through Verdion including the £400 million ''"iPort Doncaster"'' development. Work on the FARRRS connecting road began in late 2013.
Site development plan
The railport lies directly adjacent to and south, west, and east of the
M18 motorway,
Rossington Colliery and spoil heaps, and former
South Yorkshire Joint Railway
The South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Midland Railway and the North Eastern Railway to oversee the constructio ...
respectively. Historically the land was entirely agricultural, known as ''Little Moor'', and part of
Potteric Carr
Potteric Carr is a large area of land to the southeast of Doncaster, in Yorkshire, England, over in size.
History
One of the earliest references to Potteric Carr comes from the itinerary of Leland c.1540:
As Leland travelled into Doncast ...
; ''Potteric Carr farm'' was located in the northwestern portion of the site. The land is low lying, about 5m above sea level, and was drained by man made cuts.
Potteric Carr Nature Reserve
Potteric Carr is a large area of land to the southeast of Doncaster, in Yorkshire, England, over in size.
History
One of the earliest references to Potteric Carr comes from the itinerary of Leland c.1540:
As Leland travelled into Doncast ...
is to the north of the site.
The entire site covers , of which is used for the development, is access land, and is countryside. Construction of the first phase was estimated to take 2 years including roads and rail access, of warehousing and rail terminal; with further warehousing constructed at a development rate of approximately per year; the entire project was estimated to be complete in 8 years.
The rail terminal is planned to connect to the rail network via both the single track freight only (since 1929) former
South Yorkshire Joint Railway
The South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Midland Railway and the North Eastern Railway to oversee the constructio ...
(SYJR) (northward and southward connections), and from an extension of the former
Rossington Colliery branch off the
East Coast Main Line.
The terminal is to be built to handle containerised (
ISO Container
An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...
,
Swap body
A swap body, swop body, exchangeable container or interchangeable unit, is one of the types of standard freight containers for road and rail transport.
Based on and very similar to the more widespread shipping containers (ISO containers), swap ...
), and
wagon-load trains, with a capacity of 20 trains per day.
The connection from the SYJR would be the primary route to the facility,
which would have 4 reception sidings and 5 handling sidings, as well as all distribution warehouses rail connected, with addition lines for damaged wagons, and locomotive storage. Gauging enhancements to
loading gauge W10 are planned for connecting lines, with construction design allowing overhead electrification at a later date. The track plan allows train lengths of up to , with siding lengths between ; trains over would be handled by an on site shunter.
In addition to the rail terminal, track work, and road access further
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
works was required as part of the plan, mainly environmental mitigation, including diversion of St. Catherine's Well Stream, landscaping, flood mitigation and drainage, footpaths, cyclepaths and bridleways. Developer estimates of job creation were over 4,000 jobs net created on site as a direct result when fully operational.
Construction and development
![Construction at Doncaster I-Port (geograph 5183650)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Construction_at_Doncaster_I-Port_%28geograph_5183650%29.jpg)
Verdion began the construction of a c. and a warehousing unit in May 2015; erection of the warehousing's frames began in November 2015.
In April 2016
Fellowes acquired a warehouse space, also to function as the company's new UK headquarters.
After some testing in late 2017, the site officially opened to railway traffic in February 2018, however, regular freight trains did not start until 12 September 2018 when
Princess Anne
Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950), is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of K ...
officially unveiled the new terminal. A week later, container trains from Southampton were arriving at the site at a rate of one per day site. From April 2019, the iPort is also served by two trains daily from
Teesport
Teesport is a large sea port located in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, Northern England.
Owned by PD Ports, it is located approximately inland from the North Sea and east of Middl ...
.
The terminal is also now served by two trains daily to and from the
Port of Felixstowe
The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's busiest containerization, container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd List of busiest container ports, busiest contain ...
. All of these trains are operated by
GB Railfreight
GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital.
GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 as the rail freight operating subsidiary of the train o ...
.
Notes
References
Sources
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alt link via Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council
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Further information
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External links
;Official
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;Defunct official
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{{Intermodal railfreight terminals in the Great Britain
Railway freight terminals in the United Kingdom
Rail transport in Doncaster