• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Tesco Spanish 'Chill Train'

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mcq

Member
Joined
24 May 2019
Messages
356
Chief executive Ken Murphy said the UK's biggest retailer has started using a chilled rail service to bring fruit and vegetables into the country from Spain, helping to cut the number of trucks it has on roads and guarantee deliveries.

He said: "We're one of the few if not the only grocery retailer in the UK that uses rail extensively. That helped us during the HGV challenges we've had during the summer.

"To put it into context, by shipping 65,000 by rail, we save about 22 million road miles a year."
Presumably it comes into the UK via Eurotunnel - where does it go to in UK?
Are there any other similar examples?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

jamesontheroad

Established Member
Joined
24 Jan 2009
Messages
2,032
Coop in Sweden has its own road-railer that runs in both directions between Malmö and Bro (near Stockholm) that takes about 17,000 refrigerated and ambioent truck trailers off the road every year. But that example is purely domestic.

International, in a sense, is the road-railer from near Oslo to Narvik, which travels via Sweden. It is not chartered by a single retailer, but carries a lot of refrigerated trucks with groceries for stores in the far north of Norway
 
Last edited:

furnessvale

Established Member
Joined
14 Jul 2015
Messages
4,558
Todays Telegraph (Business section) says Tesco is planning to ramp up this service.
Presumably it comes into the UK via Eurotunnel - where does it go to in UK?
Are there any other similar examples?
Several years ago, Tesco had a dedicated chilled train from Spain to the UK via the tunnel. The containers are suitable for UK loading gauge and a number found themselves being forwarded as far as Scotland. Even now, some of those containers are used on domestic chilled work.

Hopefully, this announcement heralds the restart of the through train from Spain possibly extended further north than Barking.
 

Ash Bridge

Established Member
Joined
17 Mar 2014
Messages
4,043
Location
Stockport
Wasn’t there a one time (intermodal?) rail freight service conveying perishable goods that operated from somewhere in Spain directly to the Widnes freight terminal or is my memory playing tricks?
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,262
Several years ago, Tesco had a dedicated chilled train from Spain to the UK via the tunnel. The containers are suitable for UK loading gauge and a number found themselves being forwarded as far as Scotland. Even now, some of those containers are used on domestic chilled work.

Hopefully, this announcement heralds the restart of the through train from Spain possibly extended further north than Barking.
The various online announcements however are all about running to DBC’s Terminal at Barking
 

Struner

Member
Joined
13 Dec 2018
Messages
767
Location
Ommelanden, EU
It seems Tesco will add two trains to the runs from Spain, including one to Scotland: https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-supply-chain-problems?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Tesco is to increase its use of trains to distribute products by almost 40% as its boss credited investment in rail freight for helping to keep its shelves stocked during the lorry driver crisis.
From next month, Tesco will add two new UK food transport train services, including one that will link Spain with Scotland.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Bald Rick

Veteran Member
Joined
28 Sep 2010
Messages
29,070
That is frustratingly unclear on whether it means a direct train all the way from Spain to Scotland - or just a forwarding of certain containers from the existing one.

I’d be surprised if there was enough demand for a trainload to run all the way to Scotland - they don’t eat that much fruit and veg up there!
 

Sm5

Member
Joined
21 Oct 2016
Messages
1,013
What do those chilled containers carry in the other direction, back to spain ?
 

43096

On Moderation
Joined
23 Nov 2015
Messages
15,161
I’d be surprised if there was enough demand for a trainload to run all the way to Scotland - they don’t eat that much fruit and veg up there!
Chips and beans are veg, technically, aren’t they? :lol:;)
 

XAM2175

Established Member
Joined
8 Jun 2016
Messages
3,469
Location
Glasgow
Chips and beans are veg, technically, aren’t they? :lol:;)
'Course they are! Have you not seen the special version of the food pyramid for Scotland? Potatoes and beans are the entirety of the bottom level :p
 

59CosG95

Established Member
Joined
18 Aug 2013
Messages
6,476
Location
Between Peterborough & Bedlington
Coop in Sweden has its own road-railer that runs in both directions between Malmö and Bro (near Stockholm) that takes about 17,000 refrigerated and ambioent truck trailers off the road every year. But that example is purely domestic.

International, in a sense, is the road-railer from near Oslo to Narvik, which travels via Sweden. It is not chartered by a single retailer, but carries a lot of refrigerated trucks with groceries for stores in the far north of Norway
Switzerland's Coop does domestic freight too. Can't think of any other Euro examples off the top of my head (e.g. Carrefour, Aldi/Hofer etc.)
 

Larkhall

Member
Joined
27 Dec 2020
Messages
21
Location
London
Would anyone happen to know roughly how this is routed on the continental side? I assume that it does vary but, especially through France, which lines would it generally take?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top