GB Railfreight has secured an agreement with leasing company Porterbrook for the supply of 50 new type JNA-X box wagons.

The wagons will be manufactured by Greenbrier at one of its production facilities in Romania.

With the use of track-friendly bogies, they will optimise the tare weight, volume capacity, and payload with the shortest wagon length over the buffers.

Structural reliability will come from the use of high-strength steel for the box structure, which also contributes to ensuring the wagons’ long service life.

The deal with GB Railfreight marks Porterbrook’s continued investment into rail freight, which in the last two years has supplied 100 intermodal twin wagons and 50 box wagons to the UK rail network.

Scheduled to arrive in the UK in the third quarter of this year 2024, the new wagons will replace existing life-expired wagons, and also add to the UK’s rail freight capacity.

With there expected to be continuing growth in the construction sector, the new wagons will be used for the transport of bulk construction materials such as ballast and stone.

Over the three months from 1 July to 30 September 2023, according to figures released by the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), total freight volumes in construction increased by 16% to 1.44 billion net tonne-kilometres, which was the highest value since quarterly figures started being recorded began in April 1998.

The Government has an ambitious target to grow rail freight by at least 75% by 2050, and the latest figures provide an excellent validation of that growth scenario.

A recent report by Rail Partners shows that freight operators are committed to making investments to achieve the government’s decarbonisation targets.

Working in partnership with Porterbrook, we’re modernising our fleet by investing in 50 brand new box wagons. These will drive further growth of the business and allow us to deliver more materials to key construction projects across the country.

Each of these new box wagons can move up to 77 tonnes of bulk material, which means that one of our trains can take up to 129 HGVs off our congested roads, pushing Britain closer to net zero.

Liam Day, Commercial Director of GB Railfreight

We are delighted to continue our journey with GB Railfreight and the rail freight sector.

This deal highlights our ongoing commitment to investing in rail freight for the long-term and to providing affordable, innovative and sustainable freight rolling stock to the UK’s railway.

Mark Wyborn, Head of Freight and Route Services at Porterbrook

We are thrilled to receive a new order for JNA box wagons from two of our valued customers, showcasing their confidence in our industry leading solutions. This order highlights Greenbrier dedication to the UK Rail industry providing reliable and efficient rolling stock to meet the evolving needs of our clients.

John Brown, Sales Director at Greenbrier