Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Revision as of 15:27, 11 April 2025 by imported>Gordon Meadows (don't need to disambiguate typos)
(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English

File:Kilsby and Crick railway station.jpg
Rail link into DIRFT from the West Coast Main Line

Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) is a rail-road intermodal freight terminal with an associated warehousing estate in Northamptonshire, England. The facility is located at the junctions between the M1 motorway, A5 and A428 roads, Template:Convert east of Rugby and Template:Convert north of Daventry; it has a rail connection from the Northampton loop of the West Coast Main Line.

The original development of approximately Template:Convert was built during the 1990s. of which only DIRFT South (DIRFT Railport) had a direct rail connection. An extension, often referred to as DIRFT II, of about Template:Convert received planning permission in 2005, and is designed to have all facilities rail connected. The first occupier of DIRFT II was Tesco, whose distribution centre reached completion in late 2011.

History

DIRFT

File:DIRFT1.png
Original development:
A – DIRFT south
B – DIRFT Central
C – DIRFT east
Urban, A road, Minor road, Rail line (dotted in tunnel), Other industrial/commercial

Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal is part of a land development project undertaken by Severn Trent Water on a Template:Convert site near Crick in Northamptonshire.[1] The location, at junction 18 of the M1 motorway in close proximity to the A5, A14 and M6 roads had been identified as early as 1978 as a "motorway-orientated growth point".[2] The ground area of the original DIRFT development is divided into three sections: DIRFT Central Template:Convert, DIRFT East Template:Convert, and DIRFT South Template:Convert by the A5 and A428 roads.[3]

The site first became operational on 27 May 1997, and was officially opened in November 1997 by Anne, Princess Royal,[4][5][6] at inception the facility included a Template:Convert warehouse operated for road haulage operator Eddie Stobart.[6] The rail connected terminal was operated by Tibbett and Britten;[6] construction of a Template:Convert rail connected warehouse was started in 1998,[7] a second Template:Convert facility was constructed in 2000.[8]

DIRFT was one of the earliest post-Channel Tunnel road-rail intermodal terminals – the site includes rail connected terminals and traditional warehousing was designed to act as a regional node for rail freight flows to and from the Port of Felixstowe and the Channel Tunnel,[9] it forms part of the UK network of the Trans-European Combined Transport network.[7]

The site was primarily developed by Severn Trent Property, part of Severn Trent Water.[10] Early occupiers included Royal Mail,[11] Tesco ('Fastway RDC' operated by DHL) (closed 2009),[12][13] and Mothercare.[14] In 2004, Template:Convert of undeveloped land on the site with a capacity for Template:Convert of warehousing was sold to a British Land/ Rosemound joint venture,[15][16] British Land subsequently let its holding to several customers including a Template:Convert warehouse let to Tesco in 2005.[17]

Severn Trent plc sold its holding in DIRFT, as well as the Template:Convert DIRFT II site to Prologis in 2006.[10][18] In 2008 Malcolm Rail became the operator of the railport at DIRFT.[19]

DIRFT II

File:DIRFT2.png
DIRFT2 extension

In 2005 planning permission was granted for a rail connected Template:Convert westward expansion of the original site with a built ground area of over Template:Convert.[3] The DIRFT II expansion was designed for rail connected warehousing allowing transfer between sea or Channel Tunnel-borne rail-freight and road transport or warehouse storage. Plans included facilities for containerised and side-loaded palletised rail freight.[20]

Tesco acquired a Template:Convert grocery distribution centre in 2011, constructed by VolkerFitzpatrick (main contractor),[21][22] construction work was completed in September 2011.[23] As part of the development, a rail tunnel was built under the A5 road to connect DIRFT II to the rail network via the original DIRFT railport.[24]

DIRFT III

A further 7.5 million sq.ft. extension, DIRFT III, was proposed for construction on the former Rugby radio station site to the northwest of the current development. The proposal also included a large area Template:Convert of green space, named Lilbourne Meadows. The development is a joint venture between ProLogis and Rugby Radio Station Limited Partnership (RRSLP) (BT and Aviva). The DIRFT III site would also be rail connected, with over Template:Convert of warehousing over Template:Convert of land plus a Template:Convert HGV parking site. A related development is the Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE) built to the west of DIRFT as a suburb of Rugby, with over 6,000 homes planned.[25][26] The development took on the name of Houlton and the first homeowners moved in during December 2017.

A planning application to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) was submitted in 2011, and was approved in July 2014.[27]

See also

References

Template:Reflist

External links

Template:Sister project

  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"., official site
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"., DIRFT official site

Template:Intermodal railfreight terminals in the Great Britain

Template:Coord

  1. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Dead link
  2. Sources:
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. a b Sources:
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. Daventry Railport Opens Rail Express issue 15 August 1997 page 10
  5. HRH Princess Royal opens terminal Rail issue 319 3 December 1997 page 7
  6. a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. Sources:
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Dead link
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Dead link
  20. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. Sources:
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  23. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. Sources:
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
    • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  26. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  27. Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".