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Issue 4 2020 - Freight Business Journal


///RO-RO


Not all doom and gloom


These are uniquely testing times for all ro ro operators, so the news that the fi rst phase of what will be the UK’s largest unaccompanied freight ferry port is especially cheering. Meanwhile, government subsidies are helping to keep services afl oat.


Drop-trailers only as Tilbury2 opens for business


Forth Ports has opened its new Tilbury2 ro ro terminal, but it will only handle unaccompanied traffi c for the time being, due to the corona crisis. The 500,000-trailer capacity


facility will be the UK’s largest unaccompanied freight ro ro port, when fully operational later this year. It will be run in exclusive partnership with P&O Ferries, whose chartered Norstream was the fi rst vessel to call, on the Tilbury-Zeebrugge service in late May. Marine works for the new


terminal, on the former Tilbury Power Station site on the north bank of the River Thames, were completed in April and successful ship trials were carried out on 17 May. It is part of a £250 million investment by Forth Ports and is Authorised Economic


Operator (AEO)


accredited and embraces the latest booking and border technology, such as number plate recognition. Later stages of the scheme


will include the country’s biggest construction processing hub and a signifi cantly larger rail head capable of handling 775m-long trains. The marine works for the


new ro-ro of the new 160-acre port were completed in April by construction fi rm GRAHAM. Tilbury’s asset and site


director Paul Dale said that the switch to a river berth would allow for larger vessels and faster vessel turnarounds while containers and trailers would be able to get onto an inland barge or the motorway network in under an hour. Forth Ports chief executive


Charles Hammond, said: “This is an important time for the UK as we emerge from the lockdown. Our new freight terminal is the country’s most modern ferry port off ering a seamless and lower carbon route to the biggest consumer market in Europe - Greater London. Despite the current challenges, we have delivered a resilient terminal


with signifi cant headroom to grow as we pursue our vision of being the nation’s strategic freight


gateway to-and-from


Europe. We believe that this terminal opening is a symbol of hope for economic recovery.” Maritime Minister, Kelly


Tolhurst added: “Barely a year since getting the green light from my Department, the opening of the Tilbury2 unaccompanied ferry terminal really is a


to off er for our customers.” Forth Ports chief operating


who worked on the build that it has been fi nished and opened, despite the current challenges facing the maritime sector. The new terminal will provide more capacity and jobs at a vital time, when our world-leading ports will be at the forefront of the UK’s economic recovery.” P&O Ferries chief executive


Janette Bell concluded: “This terminal will signifi cantly increase the speed of our services and improve access to the M25 for our customers who carry important consumer


officer Stuart Wallace told FBJ that the new Tilbury2 ro ro berth would eliminate spent waiting by vessels


time for


locks to open and close and give scope for the port to build up its already substantial business. “It’s a quantum leap in the nature and type of operation,” he said. Activities and equipment at Tilbury2 were all concentrated on a single site, which would further boost efficiency while check-in for drivers dropping or picking up trailers was completely paperless – very fortuitously in view of the need for social distancing during the corona outbreak, “so the timing of this new facility is absolutely ideal”, Wallace added. The new ro ro terminal had benefited from knowledge transfer from Forth Ports’ container operations, he pointed out. Currently, the new terminal


landmark moment for this major infrastructure project. It is a great testimony to all those


and industry goods. We look forward to developing all of the opportunities this terminal has


is handling only P&O Ferries’ service to and from Zeebrugge as the recently introduced Calais/Tilbury route has been suspended due to the corona pandemic. However, with its double pontoon and ability to


handle both stern-loading and quarter-ramp vessels, Tilbury2 has plenty of capacity to handle more business. Elsewhere in the port, Tilbury


handles substantial volumes of car traffic for the likes of Eucor and Hyundai, along with sto- ro forest products traffic. The old ro ro terminal, which is inside the locks, will probably be configured to handle transhipment to and from Thames barges, a business that Forth Ports is keen to develop. Wallace says: “We’ve been talking to the Port of London Authority and others who want to see wharves along the river brought back into use, and the Government is also keen on investing in infrastructure, so there’s plenty of potential.” Rail traffic in Tilbury will have


massive potential too, he adds, especially when Tilbury2’s dedicated terminal opens later this year. Zeebrugge is the end- point of an extensive network of intra-European intermodal services and the P&O service could be a link in a chain of rail and sea services stretching from across the Continent to the north of England and Scotland, via Tilbury.


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