Network Rail has announced a five-year plan to take vehicles off the road and provide a sustainable, green option for transporting heavy goods by rail.

Network Rail is supporting the Ashville Group at a site at Thorney Mill, West Drayton, in West London, by opening a new freight yard next to Ashville’s existing aggregate base.

A disused siding is being reinstated to enable the Ashville Group to increase its use of rail.

At present, the yard can only accommodate 24 wagons but the new track layout will increase capacity to 26 freight wagons.

Until the new sidings are brought into use, the Ashville Group is using a section of branch line to manoeuvre to and from the loading area.

As part of the project to reinstate the sidings, earlier this year Network Rail carried out essential repairs to the branch line that serves the Ashville Group yard.

The new layout of the sidings will allow freight trains to run round their trains on site, thereby reducing journey times and carbon emissions.

Freight trains currently need to travel further down the branch line to run round their trains.

The new sidings will also allow better access to the line for maintenance, improving infrastructure reliability for freight operators.

To further boost the site’s green credentials, Ashville Group plans to install solar power at the yard.

Network Rail is currently going through the planning process to redevelop 30 acres of brownfield land in East London as London’s biggest freight interchange point.

Rail is also prominent in constructing HS2, with over one million tonnes of construction materials having been delivered to a rail construction hub in Buckinghamshire.

“Network Rail have been very supportive of our endeavours in rail. We see rail playing a huge part in the future of construction and many other sections. Rail is the major source of supply to our business and has helped us become the masters of our own destiny.

Daniel Ashville Louisy, owner of Ashville Aggregates