Can high-speed rail freight work? Evidently so. The British start-up GoExpress has run a four-week trial on the West Coast Main Line to prove its concept. With transit times almost halved and a near-perfect on-time arrival rate, the experiment appears to have been successful.
GoExpress ran trains at 90 miles per hour (145 kilometres per hour) between DPD’s hub in Leicestershire, England, and the Glaswegian Eurocentral Distribution Centre in Scotland. Previously, the transit time between the two hubs would have been around eight hours. GoExpress managed to cover the distance in four and a half hours. The trains, hauling 40-foot HC containers using a tri-mode locomotive, arrived on time 53 times out of 54 journeys.
Data gathered during the trial indicates that the high-speed rail service can provide substantial decarbonisation benefits. Energy consumption over a distance of 270 miles (435 kilometres) for a 20-container train was 58% lower compared to electric heavy trucks. Compared to diesel or HVO-based trucking, the GoExpress train would reduce the carbon footprint of each container journey by 390 kilogrammes and 74 kilogrammes respectively.
Continue reading:
Guest authors
