Direct Rail Services (DRS)
Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a freight operating company created by British Nuclear Fuels Limited. The company started rail operations in 1995 using five heavily refurbished Class 20/3 diesel locomotives. Since then it has expanded greatly, and has acquired many more locomotives, most bought second-hand and subsequently refurbished. Ownership of DRS was transferred from BNFL to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority when the NDA was created on 1 April 2005, under the terms of the Energy Act 2004. DRS is the only remaining publicly owned rail freight company in the United Kingdom.
Operations
DRS now operates all nuclear flask trains in the country, which were previously operated by EWS. Destinations served include the UK nuclear power stations at Heysham, Valley (for Wylfa), Bridgwater (for Hinkley Point), Berkeley (for Oldbury), Hunterston, Torness, Seaton-on-Tees, Dungeness and Sizewell.
The company formerly operated trains to the railhead at Southminster for fuel from Bradwell nuclear power station, however this installation is now in the process of being decommissioned. Occasionally trains are run from Sellafield to Ramsden Dock at Barrow-in-Furness, which carry nuclear waste imported from Japan for treatment. DRS also have a sporadic contract with supplying the Royal Navy's Devonport Dockyard with fuel for Britain's nuclear submarine fleet, however these trains only run several times per year, as required.
The company has recently started running intermodal trains from Coatbridge to the Daventry International Railfreight Terminal using its own Class 66 locomotives for The Malcolm Group (the logistics company), carrying containers for both The Malcolm Group and Asda, and in 2006 commenced with a new service on behalf of Eddie Stobart in partnership with Tesco, the UK's largest food retailer, to move containers from Daventry north to Scotland using a new dedicated low-emission Class 66 locomotive in Eddie Stobart livery. For the first half of 2008, DRS also operated the Stobart Pullman railtour trains, using Class 47 locomotives.
DRS has also won traffic from other railfreight operators recently, taking over the Russell container trains previously run by EWS and also the right to operate some Network Rail sandite trains during the leaf fall season, mainly with Class 37s and 66s. Currently, Direct Rail Services also hire a number of the 2007 batch of Class 66s to Freightliner while they address a shortage in motive power after also winning contracts from EWS.
Its locomotive fleet is based at Kingmoor depot in Carlisle, which reopened during 2000. Most repairs to the fleet are conducted here and it has been the site of successful open days in 2003, 2005 and 2007. Prior to the reopening of Kingmoor depot, DRS used facilities on-site at Sellafield nuclear plant in West Cumbria, however these are now no longer used and several sidings inside the British Nuclear Group's compound are used as a stabling point for locomotives. A new depot at Crewe Gresty Bridge was recently opened by Gwyneth Dunwoody, MP for Crewe and Nantwich on 23 March 2007. Facilities for loco servicing in East Anglia are concentrated at Stowmarket, with a small stabling point known as Marsh Lane. This is mainly used during the Autumn Sandite season, although locomotives can sometimes be found there at other times of the year, such as when working stoneblowers and other maintenance vehicles between Ashford and the Mid-Norfolk Railway at Dereham. Throughout the year, locomotives may be stabled in the Parcels Sidings at York railway station, in order to work wagons between Haverton Hill repair depot and Carlisle Kingmoor.
Other new work DRS has obtained is the initial phase of transporting aggregates from the Port of Workington to the Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) at Drigg. Also the Millom aggregate rail delivery programme has successfully commenced on Monday 19 January 2009. The aggregate that is being delivered to (LLWR) at Drigg is for the support of Vault 9. Around 80,000 tonnes of aggregate will be hauled from Millom to (LLWR) at Drigg in support of Vault 9. The service is an innovative rail development and a first for the Cumbrian Coast railway and this is because the aggregates is being loaded from a stockpile to a rail wagon on the mainline south of Millom under a Network Rail night time possession.
Since Monday 15 June 2009, DRS has been the supplier of Class 47 locomotives to National Express East Anglia at Norwich Crown Point depot for "Thunderbird" duties on the Great Eastern Main Line, as well as for hauling Class 90 electric locomotives from Norwich to Great Yarmouth on summer Saturdays. This work was previously undertaken by Cotswold Rail.
In late Summer 2009, it was revealed that DRS had lost the Stobart intermodal contract to rival company DB Schenker, as Stobart attempted to expand their railfreight business. DB Schenker commenced operating the contract on January 4, 2010.
After the devastating floods in West Cumbria in November 2009, DRS have been providing two locomotives and four coaches as a free-of-charge shuttle service between Workington and Maryport, calling at the new station at Workington North and Flimby en route. This service is being funded by the Department for Transport and is expected to be running until May 2, 2010.