On the grapevine have heard that Tyne Yard (a DBS yard), there are currently more Freightliner drivers than DBS drivers, which shows you how bad it has become in the past few years. It has just lost the Jarrow tanks as well, which isn't good news either.
Poor management and poor planning. I certainly wouldn't want to be working for a freight company at this current time, all companies are effected with FLHH possibly losing the most work. It seems that DBS have got it totally wrong as well with making hundreds redundant then having to go on a huge recruitment drive only to now have a surplus. If the current climate continues there will be a lot of drivers looking for jobs with TOC's.
Muddy, for once I absolutely agree with you. The problem is how do you make rail freight competitive in terms of journey times and price. As you say there are a fair few rail connected freight terminals that are not being used, in fact in the case of Castle Donington the freight terminal has never been used despite brand new rail infrastructure and being right next to the Marks & Spencer distribution centre.
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Indeed, I completely agree with you both.
However, I have felt that for some considerable time that DBS, and that of previous operator EWS has had some considerable issues building for some time. EWS put itself in a position after privatisation where they had lots of money to spend, So they went out and bought 250 66s. They of course then went out and bought 30 Class 67s. The inherited a large amount of ex BR locos but sat on them for some time before selling them on for scrap or to other operators. They then became a little too greedy, lost the Royal Mail contract which lost the majority of the work for the 67s. Over the year's they've taken some heavy hits with the loss of a lot of the infrastructure and energy sector works to the likes of GBRf & Colas, with Freightliner and DRS picking up some of it as well, they have been steadily cutting maintenance and maintenance facilities back over the years to make a lot of it all Toton centric - fine if the 66 is reliable enough, not so if you only have 1 or 2 in somewhere like St Blazey for example and that fails on the GWML or having to hire in a road crane to lift a wagon to replace a wheelset because they've sold off or demolished it's former depot, Then there's the recruitment situations as well.
In short, they must have known that the coal sector was in decline for many a year and that eventually it would have to be heavily reduced. But when you've got 3 other FOCs who are also very good at snapping up work as well, DBS Management have been either very slow to adapt to the game or surprisingly blinkered to the current climate. And notoriously over / undercutting bids for traffic for several years now, most of which doesn't seem to be getting them any further than they presently are, if not loosing further traffic.
On the Railfreight point mentioned above - It is a difficult and disappointing thing to see new or fairly new railfreight terminals constructed then abandoned after little or no use - The one at Telford being another example. However, some of these I think are either located in the wrong places where there is little around the start or end point, which then results in little to entice businesses to switch from road haulage to transporting their goods to one freight terminal, onto rail then off at another end. They may be able to shift more, but in this economic climate it'll all come down to cost at the end of the day, the economics and speed compared to that offered by road. And as for the M&S Castle Donnington business - that really is an absolute farce. Didn't M&S get planning permission to build the site so long as they made use of the Rail connection? Either way, it's hardly very ''Plan A'' from a company so apparently concerned about the environment. Mind you, while M&S Has a large distribution centre in Swindon for GM and at Thatcham for food, Tesco has built one of the largest in the South on the former Reading Brewery - Both near Railway Lines, Both with no intention of any use of Rail.
I really do feel for the DBS staff who are likely to be affected by this, sadly not so for the Management who seemed to have played EWS/DBS rather badly over the past few years.
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Speaking of Railfreights and Innovation for a moment though. I have noticed that the B&Q service is still running with DBS using up to 2 former Household Coal carrying HEA Hoppers on each service full of Gravel - Doesn't this run from Southampton to Mossend?
I wonder how far the Colas Rail developments are getting too - Not just the service from Daventry, but as TNT has a major distribution centre near Birch Coppice I believe there was talk of a Birch Coppice to Euston service as well?
Another loss for Freightliner coming up at the end of this month will also be Ellesmere Port's Manisty Wharf which is finishing at the end of this month. It's current and only traffic is the Ellesmere Port to Fiddlers Ferry Power service.