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SEA-RAIL FREIGHT FACILITIES TO BE EXPANDED AT ABERDEEN HARBOUR

Increasing demand means additional sidings

Aberdeen Harbour Board are to expand inter modal transport facilities, with additional rail sidings to handle the increasing freight arriving at and leaving the port by rail.

Two further sidings, each 300 metres long, are to be installed at the harbour's Waterloo yard, at a cost of around £500,000.

The yard already has two sidings linking the port to the rail network. These are used for the onward delivery, regionally and nationally, of imported slurry products used in coatings for the paper industry, with throughput expected to continue to grow.

The Harbour Board's Operations Director and Harbour Master, Captain Ray Shaw, said: "Increasing the use of rail transport to deliver shipments to-and-from the port as an efficient and environmentally-friendly alternative to road is a key objective of the Board. The recently completed gauge enhancement of the line to the central belt gives added opportunities for sea containers to be handled in Aberdeen.

"In addition to the current traffic increasing, there is strong interest in the offshore oil industry in using the facility and we are confident that the new sidings will be another valuable asset in sustaining and developing activity."

Due to be operational in summer 2008, the new, built-in sidings will be flush with the yard surface, enabling other traffic to drive over the tracks, so retaining full flexibility in the yard's use.

A 16,000 square metre area of the yard is currently being surfaced in a project costing more than £4 million and due for completion in Spring, 2008. Adding to back-up facilities already available at the port, the Waterloo yard area will be used for marshalling cargoes, storage and port-related rail freight.