#PortRailFreight - Iarnród Éireann and International Warehousing and Transport (IWT) reached a milestone as their partnership that transports intermodal containers and tanks by rail from Dublin Port to Ballina, Co. Mayo reached the 1500th train to operate during November.
According to MultiModal, six years ago the service commenced with just two trains per week from Dublin North Wall and the equivalent return services from Ballina.
Trains at Dublin Port were then being loaded on the Alexandra Road tramway until in May 2011 as previously reported on Afloat.ie the bespoke rail terminal at the port opened and services were transferred into it.
Over the intervening years the demand for the services steadily increased with up to 16 services now being operated each week. Use of rail has helped Ireland towards meeting its emissions targets with approximately 24,000 truck movements being saved from the roads and a saving of close to 5 million kgs in Co2 emissions being achieved.
Planned developments for these services include longer trains on the Dublin-Ballina route to improve the competitiveness of rail versus road. Co. Mayo is a major freight hub on the Iarnród Éireann network and in the latter part of 2015 sidings at Claremorris have been relayed and extended with one additional track being brought back into use to cope with the levels of freight now running to and from the county.
In addition to the IWT trains, pulpwood trains are operated regularly for Coillte, the Irish timber company and intermodal trains for DFDS Logistics. There are high hopes that a contract for further freight in the form of biomass will also be secured during the coming year.