MARCH 2021 saw Freightliner haul a record volume of aggregates for Mendip Rail.
The operator surpassed its own monthly record of 761,000 tonnes set a year earlier, moving a total of 796,000t in an average of 120 trains per week.
Freightliner took over the Mendip Rail haulage contract from DB Cargo in November 2019, and has continued to move large tonnages of aggregate from Somerset to London and the south-east of England despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
During that time Freightliner has also run trials with 4000t trains – the longest and heaviest on the UK network with a single locomotive – using hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) rather than diesel fuel. The operator’s Merehead depot has also recently been awarded ISO14001 Environmental Management Systems standard.