Intermodal
Conveying containers as part of a road/rail or sea/rail/road journey, or ‘piggyback’ services where a lorry trailer is carried on the freight train. Timetabled services run between rail freight terminals, and between terminals and ports. Single-container shipments are accepted: freight forwarders work with the rail freight operators to aggregate loads to optimize the payload and keep costs down.

Network Rail is engaged on a major investment programme to open up the major UK rail freight lines to the W10 loading gauge, which allows Hi-Cube 2.9m high containers and 2.5m wide Euro containers to be carried on normal wagons (Hi-Cubes can be carried on other routes using low-slung wagons but wagon capacity is reduced). Check with your freight forwarder to see if your intended transport route(s) will fit your consignments.

If you are shipping through Felixstowe or Southampton, then these (and many other ports) are extensively rail-served, and it is as easy to include rail as part of the journey as it is to use trucks for the whole overland route.