In a narrow side street just 50 metres or so from the vintage boutiques at Spitalfields Market is GB Railfreight’s (GBRf) headquarters, or at least it is until December 12. The company is moving on, both literally and figuratively, taking on bigger premises in Old Broad Street.

People are at the centre of GBRf - a point that managing director John Smith (pictured) was keen to stress. ‘We’re a very cultural-based business. This is about the people that work here,’ said John, in an interview in which he asked almost as many questions as he answered, showing a genuine curiosity in people.

GBRf is one of the lesser known but most important success stories of railway privatisation. The company started from scratch in 1999 and is not a BR-successor freight company. In 2003 it was purchased by FirstGroup who in turn sold it to Eurotunnel subsidiary Europorte in 2010. An extensive portfolio includes E.ON, Network Rail, EDF Energy, UK Coal, Merrill Lynch, Tarmac and Drax.

GBRf is closely involved in the Crossrail project, the London Underground and Hitachi Rail. Next year GBRf will be hauling Serco’s new prestigious Caledonian Sleeper, providing locomotives, guards and drivers. John Smith heads a team of 600 people operating over 1,000 trainloads a week, moving 15 per cent of Britain’s rail freight with 99 per cent reliability.

This month, the final seven new Class 66 locomotives from Electro-Motive Diesel are expected from the USA. The arrival of 21 new locomotives in the past six months has been coupled with the start of a haulage contract with Network Rail, which has included the

supply of railhead treatment trains in Kent and Sussex, and preparations for the start of a new contract with Aggregate Industries on 1 January.

FlexibilitySmith says the company has grown

by around 15 per cent in the last year thanks to a combination of new business and greater volumes from existing customers.

‘Some markets have gone off,’ says John. ’Coal has been quieter, mainly because of the fact that it’s slowly getting marginalised but equally it’s been warmer… The mild autumn so far reduces coal demand and we’ve expanded in other areas. We’ve expanded in aggregates particularly.’

According to John, it is the company’s flexibility that has led to it winning work in numerous different areas of the rail freight market recently. It was this flexibility that John believes attracted Hitachi to partner with GBRf for the Class 800/1 testing and driver training programme. In March 2015, the first pre-series trains will arrive from Japan. It will be the first time that GBRf has been involved in the commissioning of full free running of a new train, but the company isn’t new to transporting trains around the country. GBRf is currently delivering S Stock Tube trains from Bombardier’s Litchurch Lane site in Derby to the capital and has a re-occurring role delivering trains for overhaul.

‘We’ve always done stuff like that,’ says John. ‘We feel it panders to what we’re good at because we’re flexible and you need to be when you’re doing those moves because they’re far from certain.’

A target area for GBRf is container traffic. In November, the operator ran its first service through the Channel Tunnel from Dourges to Barking for

GB Railfreight

Report by Marc Johnson

Goes for Broad Approach

FREIGHT38 | RailStaff | December 2014

its parent company Europorte France using Class 92 locomotives that it had purchased from Europorte earlier this year. There are opportunities to expand both internationally and within the domestic market if the infrastructure can accommodate it.

Says John, ‘The main restriction on us running more intermodal services is capacity. Both in ports, on Network Rail and how that capacity is controlled. So we’ve got a big push on to try and move more containers on rail next year but some of those challenges are not so much customer based as how the whole thing is structured within the industry.’

High-speed rail is one project which promises to create more capacity for freight. For John, HS2, and the proposed trans-Pennine corridor, would be a positive step for the sector.

‘I think I’m pragmatic. Whether it be HS2 or HS3, it will create capacity,’ he said. ‘The opportunity for us also is building it and being involved in building it. We’ve been heavily involved with Crossrail. We’ve moved all the muck away from Westbourne Park tunnel. We’ve just been contracted to do the fit out.’

John, a dedicated Sunderland supporter, began his career 37 years ago as a technician apprentice in York. His CV includes stints as a project engineer working on the Mark 4 coaches and a fleet engineer for InterCity Cross-Country before he established GBRf in 1999. Although he looks back fondly at the quality of the training he was offered by British Rail (BR) as a graduate, he is quite happy to be on the other side of the fence.

‘My life was spent closing things and rationalising things in BR days, which is basically driven by the lack of funding from government, whereas this

has all been about buying things and employing people.’

With new contracts won for 2015, the challenge next year will be to retain what GBRf already has.

Says John, ‘We have a number of contracts that come up for renewal through 2015 into 2016. This applies to all operators. Your business is underpinned by your contractual workload. If all the work that we’ve done this year is contracted for 10 years then, manna from heaven, I’d just go home and play golf. But actually there’s a lot of hard work to do around contracts that are going to be up for renewal.’

GBRf’s new Class 66s mark the end of an era. From 2015, no more Class 66s will be built for Europe. New rules on emissions have put paid to any new units of what has become a mainstay of the UK rail freight fleet. So why not invest in low-emission vehicles and where does the company stand on innovation.

‘We have innovated in some areas, but we’re not an engineering business,’ said John. ‘We’re an operating business, we operate trains and that’s what the raison d’être of this company is.

‘We’re not necessarily in the driving seat around creating innovation like that, but we do involve others with helping us to look at it… We have been examining various initiatives. We’re not one for suddenly experimenting because it impacts on performance and your ability to deliver.’ He added, ‘You would hope that the supply market would come up with these innovations of their own accord, and we could just buy off the shelf and it would all be great. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work like that so you find yourself having to kick-start it.’

John escapes the complex world of rail logistics by spending time with his wife and two sons. Although when your better half of 20 years is also a Network Rail employee, leaving it behind can sometimes be difficult.

Under Smith, GBRf has helped kick-start the rail freight resurgence in Britain. A broad approach will see the company further expanding next year. Sunderland may have received an 8-0 thumping from Southampton in October but GBRf is on safer ground and looks set to record many wins this season and beyond.

December 2014 | RailStaff | 39FREIGHT