New pop-up rail depot in Warrington

CEMEX open temporary depot next to West Coast mainline to meet growing demand for aggregates

A NEW pop-up rail depot in Warrington which is helping to meet the growing demand for aggregates in the North West is the latest rail innovation from CEMEX. Established in partnership with rail freight firm DB Cargo, the new facility is capable of handling 125,000 tonnes a year.

The temporary Warrington depot has been created using a ready-made weighbridge and office, together with a generator, on spare land next to the West Coast main line. Aggregates are transported to the depot in box wagons, unloaded by grab and stockpiled on site for subsequent transportation by road to local concrete plants and construction sites.

‘A pop-up rail depot can be installed in weeks rather than months and gives the flexibility to move aggregates from quarries to areas where they are needed, especially in the short term. So with the right piece of land close to the rail network, you can create a depot,’ explained Mark Grimshaw-Smith, head of CEMEX Rail and Sea.

He continued: ‘Rail has considerable economic and environmental benefits compared with road transportation with significant CO2 savings and, on busy roads, major time savings. In 2015 we transported 2.3 million tonnes by rail, equivalent to 80,000 truck movements. And now that we can establish a depot relatively quickly, we would like to establish more freight paths taking even more trucks off our busy roads.’

Currently, CEMEX operate 14 receiving depots serving key areas of the country with material from three dispatch points: Dove Holes Quarry, in Derbyshire; Shap Quarry, in Cumbria; and Cardiff. Rail volumes have grown by 25% between 2012 and 2015.