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DB Schenker Rail (UK)

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EWS redirects here. For other uses, see EWS (disambiguation)

DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd.
File:DB Schenker logo.svg
IndustryRail freight
PredecessorBritish Rail ( -1995),
North and South Railways (1995–1996),
English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS) (1996–2009).
Founded1995, (2009-Present As DB Schenker)
HeadquartersDoncaster, England, UK
Area servedUnited Kingdom
Key peopleEdward Burkhardt (Chairman and Chief Executive 1995–1999)[1]
Keith Heller (Chief Executive / Co-chairman) 2004–2010[2][3]
Alain Thauvette, CEO[4]
ServicesBulk freight and intermodal logistics
Revenue€ 18 billion (2011)[5] (as DB AG)
Employees4,000[5]
ParentDeutsche Bahn via DB Schenker
SubsidiariesEuro Cargo Rail, Stobart Rail
Websitewww.rail.dbschenker.co.uk

DB Schenker Rail (UK), before 2009 known as English, Welsh and Scottish Railway (EWS), is a British rail freight company headquartered in Doncaster, England.

The company was established as North and South Railways[6] in 1995 by a consortium led by Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation, and was renamed EWS the following year, following the acquisition of five of the six freight companies created by the privatisation of British Rail. (The only one it did not acquire, Freightliner, was bought out by its management.[7])

On 28 June 2007, EWS was acquired by Deutsche Bahn AG, and in 2009 it adopted the DB Schenker brand, along with Deutsche Bahn's other freight organisations in Europe (including Railion).

History[]

English, Welsh and Scottish Railway[]

File:66161 , Tupton.jpg

Class 66 with coal wagons in EWS livery (2011).

The company was formed as North and South Railways[8] in 1995 by a consortium headed by Wisconsin Central, with additional financing provided by the financial sector,[9] including Berkshire Partners and Fay Richwhite.[10]

The company's first acquisition was that of Rail Express Systems on 9 December 1995, for £24 million.[11][12] With this came the contract for the Royal Mail train service, including the Travelling Post Office trains; the contract was one of the most profitable obtained by the company.[9] Then, on 24 February 1996, British Rail's three trainload freight companies - Loadhaul Ltd, Mainline Freight Ltd and Transrail Freight Ltd - were acquired for a total of £225 million.[11][12] All four companies were subsequently merged into North and South Railways, and on 10 July 1996 the name English, Welsh and Scottish Railway, or EWS for short, was adopted.[13][14]

One of the first actions of the enlarged company was to seek volunteers for redundancy, as it sought to reduce staff numbers by around 3000, from 7600.[15]

On 22 November 1997 EWS took over the loss-making Railfreight Distribution, for which it received grants and subsidies estimated to amount to £242 million over eight years,[16] including subsidies for the use of the Channel Tunnel.[17] Railfreight Distribution's businesses included international containerised freight, movement of cars and automotive components by rail, and freight services for the Ministry of Defence. At the time of the takeover, it had 150 locomotives including the specialised Class 92 locomotives for the Channel Tunnel, and was making a yearly loss of around £65 million.[16] Railfreight Distribution was renamed English, Welsh and Scottish Railway International Ltd on 1 December 1998.[13]

The new company had over 900 locomotives and 19,000 freight wagons, and 7,000 employees. Track access charges were renegotiated and after 1800 job redundancies the workers involved in profit sharing and other incentivised working plans; as a result shipping rates were reduced by over 30%.[18] Many locomotives inherited on foundation were considered unreliable, and expensive to maintain;[19] the company invested heavily in modernisation of its rolling stock; by 2002 £750 million had been invested,[20] including 280 new locomotives and over 2000 new wagons.[9]

EWS's services included mail, locomotive hire, waggonload traffic (branded 'Enterprise', founded by Transrail Freight), cross channel trains via the Channel Tunnel, trainload freight including oil, aggregates, cement and traffic related to the coal, electricity generation and steel industries, and infrastructure trains for Railtrack.[9] Additionally, in the decade following privatisation EWS began to compete for container traffic contracts,[note 1] and its competitor Freightliner Group also entered into competition for trainload freight, as did DRS (a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels) which was initially set up to move radioactive materials by rail.[9] EWS's turnover in 1999 was £533.7 million (a 80% market share by value) with a profit of £32.8 million.[9]

National Power who had operated trains for their power stations under the open access regulations had their train operations acquired by EWS in 1998.[9]

In 2001 the Canadian National Railway (CN) bought Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation for its North American holdings (Wisconsin Central Ltd.) and so became a major shareholder (42.5%) of EWS; the company announced its intentions to divest itself of Wisconsin Central's foreign holdings.[21]

The contract with Royal Mail was lost in 2003 (switching to road transport), due to cost.[22] The French rail freight subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail was founded in 2005.

By 2006 EWS's turnover was approaching £1 billion, while profit was £14 million.[23]

DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd.[]

File:59206 at NRM York (1).jpg

Class 59 at National Railway Museum, York at DB Schenker livery unveiling (January 2009)

On 28 June 2007, it was announced at a press conference held by Deutsche Bahn (DB), EWS and Spanish rail forwarder Transfesa that DB was to acquire all the shares in EWS as soon as contracts were signed.[24] The value of the deal was estimated at £300 million; at the time EWS had a market share of around 70% in the United Kingdom and around 5000 employees.[25]

Initially it was announced that EWS would not be rebranded,[26] but on 1 January 2009 EWS, DB's existing Freight organisation Railion and their freight logistics organisation DB Schenker were re-branded DB Schenker.[27]

As part of a formal launch of the new brand,[note 2] a Class 59 locomotive 59206 was unveiled in full DB Schenker branding at a ceremony at the National Railway Museum in York on 21 January 2009.[29]

In 2009 DB Schenker Rail began work to enable Class 92 hauled trains to operate freight services on the High Speed 1 by installing in cab TVM signalling. The project received funding from the European Commission and it was originally anticipated services would begin in early 2010.[30] On 25 March 2011 for the first time a modified class 92 locomotive travelled from Dollands Moor to Singlewell using the TVM430 signalling system.[31] The first of five planned test trains ran as a loaded container train from Hams Hall, West Midlands to Novara, Italy on 27 May 2011.[32][33] DB planned to upgrade an additional five Class 92 locomotives to allow them to run on High Speed 1, making a fleet of six.[34][35]

In July 2011 a trial run of wagons carrying curtain walled swap bodies built to a larger European loading gauge was run from Dollands Moor, Folkestone to east London.[36] From 11 November 2011 a weekly service using European sized swap bodies has run between Barking, London and Wroclaw, Poland using High Speed 1.[37][38]

Fleet[]

DB Schenker Rail (UK) have the following fleet of locomotives:

DB Schenker Rail (UK) have the following fleet of electric multiple unit:

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Edward A. Burkhardt. www.railword.com. Retrieved on 6 July 2011.
  2. ↑ Template:Cite news
  3. ↑ Keith Heller's contribution to the railway honoured with locomotive naming. www.rail.dbschenker.co.uk. DB Schenker UK (19 January 2010).
  4. ↑ Alain Thauvette , Member of the Management Board of DB Schenker Rail (Region West). www.dbschenker.com. Retrieved on 6 July 2011.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 About DB Schenker Rail (UK). dbschenker.co.uk. Retrieved on 27 February 2013.
  6. ↑ http://www.companieslist.co.uk/02938988-db-schenker-rail-uk-limited list of company former names
  7. ↑ History. www.freightliner.co.uk. Freightliner Group Ltd. Retrieved on 6 July 2011. “"1999 : Freightliner was privatised through a management buyout”
  8. ↑ Lousie Butcher (18 March 2011). Railways: privatisation, 1987–1996. www.parliament.uk. House of Commons Library. Retrieved on 6 July 2011.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 C. Nash (2004). "Rail Privatisation in Britain - Lessons for the Rail Freight Industry", in European Conference of Ministers of Transport. Economic Research Centre: European integration of rail freight transport (Round Table 125). OECD Publishing, 61–94. 
  10. ↑ North & South Railways Ltd acquires Rail Express Systems(UK). www.alacrastore.com. Thomson Reuters (8 December 1995).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Sale of Rail Freight Distribution. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions / National Audit Office (26 March 1999).
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Rail Privatisation. hansard.millbanksystems.com. Hansard, House of Commons, UK (27 December 1996).
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Philippe Thalmann (2004). The dynamics of freight transport development: a UK and Swiss comparison. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 34–36. ISBN 0-7546-3756-5. 
  14. ↑ Template:Citation/core, see entries for ENGLISH WELSH & SCOTTISH RAILWAY HOLDINGS LIMITED, Company No. 03116322
  15. ↑ Template:Citation/core
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 The Sale of Rail Freight Distribution. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions / National Audit Office (26 March 1999).
  17. ↑ Template:Cite news
  18. ↑ (1999) "Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation", in Jay P. Pederson: International Directory of Company Histories 24. St. James Press. 
  19. ↑ Brian Hollingsworth (2000). "Class 66 Co-Co freight locomotive", Illustrated Directory of Trains of the World. MBI Publishing Company, 468. ISBN 0-7603-0891-8. 
  20. ↑ (2003) "Mr Graham Smith, Planning Director and Mr Allen Mardsen, English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) examined", in House of Commons. Transport Committee: Ports: Oral and written evidence. The Stationery Office, EV 16 - EV 18. 
  21. ↑ Template:Cite news
  22. ↑ Template:Cite news
  23. ↑ (2008) in House of Commons: Transport Committee: Freight transport: eighth report of session 2007-08. The Stationery Office, EV 80. 
  24. ↑ Deutsche Bahn plans takeover of EWS and Transfesa. Deutsche Bahn (28 June 2007). Archived from the original on 5 July 2007. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
  25. ↑ Template:Cite news
  26. ↑ Falkner, James (29 June 2007). DB gets go-ahead for rail takeovers. International Freighting Weekly. Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
  27. ↑ EWS to rebrand as DB Schenker in new year. ifw-net.com (17 December 2008). Retrieved on 15 October 2010.
  28. ↑ Media Center. Retrieved on 15 October 2010.
  29. ↑ Template:Cite press release
  30. ↑ Sources:
    "Class 92 modifications for HS1 freight" (1 June 2009) (179). 
    Freight trains set to use High Speed 1. DB Schenker Rail (16 April 2009).
  31. ↑ Template:Cite press release
  32. ↑ Template:Cite press release
  33. ↑ Template:Cite news
  34. ↑ Template:Cite news
  35. ↑ Locomotives upgraded for European rail freight services on High Speed 1. Press Releases. DB Schenker Rail (UK) (7 October 2011). Retrieved on 11 July 2012. “investment will give DB Schenker Rail UK a fleet of six High Speed 1 enabled locomotives”
  36. ↑ Template:Citation/core
  37. ↑ Template:Citation/core
  38. ↑ Template:Citation/core

References[]

Further reading[]

  • Sutton, Philip (August 2007). "Burkhardt on EWS". Rail Express 135: 32–37. 

External links[]

Template:Commons category Template:Commons category

  • Template:Official website
  • Template:Citation/core


Template:Deutsche Bahn Template:British freight operators
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