48


Issue 2 2015 - Freight Business Journal


///FREIGHT BREAK Grounded


You can’t turn on the TV news these days without hearing some doctor or other expert banging on about the dangers of obesity. But is the problem spreading from the human population to the country’s bird life, and in particular its seagulls? I only ask, because on a trip to Calais on Eurotunnel’s


shuttle service a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help noticing how enormous some of these creatures have become – about the size and shape of rugby balls, on legs. One in particular seemed to have taken to hanging around the entrance to the passenger terminal in Folkestone, waiting to be fed titbits by gullible travellers. Our huge feathered friend had given up all pretence


of flying – it seemed as much as he (she) could do to liſt one webbed foot off the ground. The only sign of animation came when a few crumbs scattered on the ground sent him scurrying off – on foot – to wolf them


Endangered species Two rails bad, one rail good?


Monorails often featured in the futuristic cityscapes in the ‘Boys’ Own’ papers of my youth. A sleek streamlined object, whisking across the skyline suspended


on


slender pylons, would apparently be de rigeur for any metropolis of the future. This of course was an age when many trains on the real railway were still hauled by wheezing and non-too-clean steam locomotives. Like many ideas that were


set to revolutionise transport, that was pretty much the last we heard of it. A few holiday camps did acquire monorails to move holidaymakers around at a sedate 15mph or so. Our local Butlins had one, but it always seemed to be broken every time we visited. Full marks to


Spanish


each direction. His diagram does


seem to suggest that passengers could also use the system; perhaps he’s hedging his bets? The clincher,


engineer Gregorio Márquez Murillo, then, for reviving the idea, but this time for shifting containers rather than trippers. Railways, he says, are handicapped because freight trains must in most cases share the infrastucture with passengers. With his Automatic Containers Transport by Electric Monorail System – ACTEMS - he proposes an electrically- powered automatic driverless monorail system, capable of speeds of up to 30mph. He’s also suggesting that it could move around 3 million teu per line in


compared with old- fashioned railways, are lower infrastructure costs because the monorail would be


able to climb gradients as steep as 4.5%, removing the need for bridges and tunnels. He has registered patents


in the EU, Russia and China with another pending in US and there has been interest from transport ministries in France and the US as well as the European Commission. Yes,


if capacity from our


ports does become an issue, I suppose you could always build more


conventional railways.


But where would be the fun in that?


A dead bird is meanwhile greatly exercising ABP Hull. It may look like a piece of crude graffiti on the wall of a rusty corrugated iron shed to you and me, but apparently ‘Dead Bod’ is an important piece of folk art, executed in 1960 by Captain Len ‘Pongo’ Rood. It has been used as a navigation aid and landmark by mariners since it first graced the walls of the shed over


50 years ago. The shed though is earmarked


for demolition as part of the new Siemens development at the Port of Hull’s Alexandra Dock, so Dead Bod will need to find a new home soon.


ABP is asking the public how


best to save it – dismantle it and stick it in an art gallery somewhere seems to be favourite at


the Above it all


Heavy haulier Van der Vlist have recently been helping the resort of Brighton build its new 162m high i360 tower. The job involved moving tower sections up to 12m long and 66.5 tonnes from Roermond, via Ijsselstein and Krimpen aan den Ijssel, before reaching the waterfront site, which is expected to be open to the public in the summer of 2016. According to the city’s own website, “People love to


see a city from above. Anyone who’s ever visited the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building or the London


Eye knows that a bird’s eye view of a famous city is a sight that never leaves you. Who can forget the feeling of rising slowly above the buildings and noise of London, or seeing Paris sprawling away beneath their feet?” Brighton certainly isn’t short of noise, or sprawling


on a Friday night, as the youth of the town and further afield come in to get themselves trollied, but at least the new tower will provide a safe observation platform for the rest of us. Perhaps every British town should have one?


Taking the long way round


Disturbing news from the Orwell Estuary – the foot ferry that has linked the port towns of Harwich and Felixstowe since 1912 seems set to close. Current owner and operator Alan Sage plans to retire and sell the 12-passenger ship. The business has been for sale since November but so far there has not been much


interest, he says. The service is a seasonal one with restricted


operating times, so shiſt workers at Felixstowe and living on the other side of the water will more oſten than not have to take the long way round by road – a whopping 30 miles, or even longer on the main roads.


moment. (Any other suggestions to hull@abports.co.uk or to @ ABPHumber - #savedeadbod). My folks hail from the city; I must


say no one in our family has ever brought this piece of artwork to my attention, but according to ABP it is “one of Hull’s most iconic pieces of folk art”. Rather worryingly for the UK City of Culture, they could well be right.


down. The port of Dover used to have signs – possibly still


has - warning people of the dangers of being dive- bombed by screaming seagulls; they can apparently do a lot of damage to the unwary. The only danger from the Eurotunnel species might be from tripping over them.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48