Varamis Rail has been granted their Freight Operating License by the Office of Rail and Road.

This now makes Varamis Rail Britain’s newest Train Operator.

Work is now progressing to run the first service from Mid-October and will see the UK’s first dedicated logistics service running 5 nights a week Monday to Friday.

The operator is now looking to sign a lease to acquire their first train soon, which is a re-purposed passenger train with its sole aim of delivering a fully-electric logistics service.

Back when Varamis Rail first started out, we spoke to Phil Read about what plans he had for the company. You can read that here.

Phil Read, Managing Director at Varamis Rail, told RailAdvent: “The team at Varamis Rail are delighted at being granted our Freight Operating License by the Office of Rail & Road (ORR), which now makes us the UKs newest Train Operator. It’s been quite a journey for myself and my team over the last 2-years which has seen us reach this point, with lots of dedication and endeavour applied by everyone involved. We are now working very hard to run our first service from mid-October which will see the UKs first dedicated Express Rail Logistics service running 5-nights per week (Mon to Fri).

“We’d like to thank the ORR for their help throughout this rigorous process, and in particular the continued support and guidance we receive from our legal team at Stephenson Harwood. Also there’s a special mention to Richard Allen, our Insurance Broker at Jobson James Rail, for arranging all of our 3^rd Party Liability insurance to meet the required standards stipulated by the ORR, a very intensive process in itself.

“Varamis Rail is hoping to sign a lease to acquire its first train shortly, a former passenger train re-purposed with a sole focus on delivering the UKs first fully-electric high-speed logistics service. More news to come on this development very soon.”