Hapag-Lloyd told customers on 27 October that London Gateway rail would be out for “at least one week”. The National Rail notice for the same railway now reads “until at least the end of the day on Tuesday 10 November”, which is 18 days after a GB Railfreight container train bound for Hams Hall partially derailed at Barking on Friday 23 October. The London Gateway rail disruption has no freight reopening date. GBR Anglia, whose engineers are planning the repairs, expects work “until at least the week beginning 9 November”.
The same track carries commuters
Freight is only one of the users. c2c has no trains between Barking and Grays via Dagenham Dock, Rainham and Purfleet, London Overground’s Suffragette line is suspended between South Tottenham and Barking Riverside, and replacement buses run half-hourly between Upminster and Grays. Thurrock Nub News called the loop through Barking, Dagenham Dock, Rainham and Purfleet the route most freight trains use, with three stations closed. Martin Beable, chief operating officer of GBR Anglia, said recovery remained complex “due to the significant damage caused to signalling equipment, cabling and other parts of the railway infrastructure”, with about 1.2 km of track to be renewed, according to Container Management. GBR Anglia’s own statement, updated on 30 October, says the derailed train has been removed so that engineers can inspect the damage.
Forth Ports put it to Tilbury customers on 26 October, the first week of the closure, in one sentence: “The line is closed and no freight rail will run this week.”
World Cargo News, quoted by Thurrock Nub News, reports that deep-sea container flows are being prioritised to prevent Thames Estuary port congestion, leaving transit times to inland hubs such as Hams Hall, Birch Coppice and Daventry extended while repairs continue.
Two dates for one railway
The Hapag-Lloyd advisory says rail services to and from London Gateway are suspended and that the disruption is expected to continue for at least one week. DP World, which runs the terminal, told The Loadstar it is operating a reduced rail service while it works with customers and Network Rail. Global Forwarding says London Gateway and Tilbury normally support more than 30 daily rail services between them.
The National Rail notice is written for passengers, so it gives no freight date. Forwarder News, which publishes its own forecasts, expects normal rail at London Gateway no earlier than 13 November.
Who arranges the truck depends on who owns the inland leg
Hapag-Lloyd treats its customers differently depending on who owns the inland leg. Its advisory tells merchant haulage and ramp customers to have their own transport providers collect the cargo by truck. Customers with existing carrier haulage bookings will be contacted by the line’s inland team. Hapag-Lloyd is unable to accept additional carrier haulage requests during the disruption, and that includes customers who cannot find trucks through their own providers.
The advisory leaves existing carrier haulage bookings open to “alternative transport arrangements” and closes the door on new ones. The Loadstar wrote that whether trucking capacity can absorb the displaced rail volume “remains unclear”, and the Road Haulage Association, which said it was “monitoring the situation”, could not give any detail on the expected level of demand.
For a box that lands while the line is still shut, the haulier needs a slot and a rate before the vessel arrives, and the live ETA for the container sets that deadline. Ask the carrier in writing whether free time at the terminal will be extended, and attach the advisory as the reason.
Fourteen days in 2021
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch records an earlier London Gateway rail disruption at the same port. On 24 December 2021, five wagons of a 33-wagon intermodal train derailed at low speed as the train entered the London Gateway rail terminal, and infrastructure damage disrupted rail freight access into and out of the port for 14 days.
That derailment happened as the train entered the terminal, and Thurrock Nub News describes the Barking loop as the one most freight services use. Forwarder News, citing RaillyNews, says the expected end date has already slipped from 29 October to 10 November. The two numbers do not measure the same thing, since the RAIB’s 14 days is freight access to the port and the notice is a passenger minimum, and the notice already runs 18 days from the derailment.