The wagons to be supplied will be a mixture of hoppers and boxes.
They will be used to move stone from the Aggregate Industries and Hanson “super-quarries” in Somerset to a range of destinations, many in London and the South East.
Delivery of the wagons is due to start in summer 2016.
Ian Shaw, VTG’s Sales and Marketing Director, said he was delighted to have signed the deal with Mendip Rail.
He went on to explain that demand for aggregate wagons is at a high and that his company’s aggregate wagon fleets are currently fully utilised.
“There is plenty of evidence suggesting continued growth in the demand for the movement of construction materials by rail.
“The latest ORR figures,” he said, “show the movement by rail rising from 0.97 to 1.04 billion net tonne kilometre. That’s a jump of 7.1% compared to the same period in 2014 and there is little, if any, spare wagon capacity available to meet the sector’s needs.
“These state of the art vehicles with their improved speed of operation, track friendly bogies and class leading payload efficiencies will bring numerous advantages for an important customer of VTG.”
Jason Black Mendip Rail’s Managing Director said: “I am very pleased that VTG challenged conventional rail industry practices in order to win the tender. The placement of such a large order is an indication of the optimism shown by both Aggregate Industries and Hanson in the continued growth from their current and future rail supplied depots, coupled with their strive to further reduce road haulage miles.”
Ian Shaw went on to explain how the increasing number of major construction projects, on top of traditional traffic, present interesting challenges for the rail freight sector.
He said: “Clearly, the construction market is currently enjoying a welcome period of growth, with housing and other markets on the up, as well as some major infrastructure projects on the horizon for example, HS2, Crossrail 2, Hinckley Point C, Thames Tideway and so forth.
“Increasingly, these major projects specify the use of rail to transport materials and spoil during the construction phase, which is clearly the right thing to do and is beneficial to “UK PLC” in numerous ways – carbon emissions, road safety and traffic congestion, to name just a few.
“However such major projects are, by their very nature, intermittent and, compared to the economic life of a rail freight wagon, of relatively short duration. The task therefore is to give the private sector the confidence to invest in these assets on the basis that they will be needed, not just in the short term, but the medium and long term as well.”
Ends
Note to editors:
- This release was issued on behalf of VTG Rail UK by Woodhouse Communications.
- Contact Woodhouse on 01444 221000 or email info@woodhousecommunications.co.uk for more information
- VTG Rail UK, a subsidiary of VTG Aktiengesellschaft (SCN: VTG999), is one of Europe’s leading wagon hire and rail logistics companies.
- The company has the largest private wagon fleet in Europe. Globally the fleet consists of about 80,000 rail freight cars with a focus on tank cars and state of the art high capacity freight cars and flat cars.