GB Railfreight
GB Railfreight is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. It is owned by EQT Partners through its subsidiary holding company Hector Rail. Ownership is scheduled to pass to Infracapital in October 2019.
History
GB Railfreight was founded in 1999 by GB Railways. Unlike competitors DB Cargo UK and Freightliner, the company was not formed from parts of the privatised British Rail freight sectors.In April 2000, after winning an eight-year contract to operate infrastructure trains for Railtrack, GB Railfreight ordered seven Class 66 locomotives. An operator's licence was granted in July 2000. Operations commenced on 1 April 2001. In February 2002, GBRf commenced operating its first Intermodal container contract from the Port of Felixstowe for MSC Mendite. Also in 2002, GBRf began its first bulk freight contract for British Gypsum.
In August 2003, GB Railways was purchased by FirstGroup and GB Railfreight was rebranded First GBRf. In April 2004, GB Railfreight commenced operating a five year contract for Network Rail with four Gatwick Express Class 73 locomotives.
In May 2005, First GBRf began operating Royal Mail services using Class 325s. This was later extended until 2010. Also in 2005, GBRf commenced operating London Underground infrastructure trains for Metronet. In March 2007, First GBRf commenced operating coal trains for Drax Group and EDF Energy.
In June 2007, the business was renamed First GBRf.
In 2009, First GBRf was granted a passenger licence allowing it to operate charter services. Between December 2009 and July 2010, First GBRf operated passenger services under contract to First Great Western. The services from Cardiff Central to Taunton operated with hired Virgin Trains Class 57/3s hauling Mark 2 carriages.
ownership
In May 2010, FirstGroup put the business up for sale. Europorte, Freightliner and SNCF were reported as being interested in the company. The company was purchased by Europorte, on 1 June 2010. Following the acquisition by Europorte, the company reverted to its original name and a revised version of the original livery.
In February 2011, GBRf commenced operation of rail traffic at Cardiff Tidal/Tremorfa Works. In 2012, GBRf commenced a ten-year contract to operate the rail network at Sahavirirya Steel Industries Lackenby steelworks, Teesside.
In April 2015, GB Railfreight commenced a contract to haul the Caledonian Sleeper. Class 92s haul it from London Euston to Edinburgh Waverley/Glasgow Central with rebuilt Class 73/9s to haul it from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William.
GB Railfreight were contracted to deliver Class 700 electric multiple-units, constructed by Siemens in Krefeld, Germany, from the Channel Tunnel; they have also been contracted to haul Class 800/801s. The latter will involve GBRf providing crews for the testing of the trains as well as hauling the sets.
In October 2016, the business was purchased by EQT Partners, to be operated as part of the Hector Rail operation internationally. In September 2019, EQT Partners announced it had agreed to sell the business to Infracapital, with the transaction scheduled for completion in October.
Fleet
To commence operations, seven Class 66/7s were ordered. Subsequent orders brought the total purchased to 72 by the end of 2014 with a further seven delivered in 2016.In October 2012 three unused Class 66s, ordered by Crossrail Benelux but stabled in the Netherlands, were purchased and, later in 2013, a further two Class 66s that were previously in service in Europe were also obtained. These were numbered 66747 to 66751 in the GBRf fleet.
GB Railways initially purchased six former Gatwick Express Class 73s. After GBRf won a contract to operate Network Rail infrastructure trains in the south -east, four were overhauled by Fragonset Railways. Subsequently, additional Class 73s were located and purchased, some from preservation, to give a total fleet of 24 locomotives. Of these, eleven were completely re-engineered in 2014 and 2015, equipped with 1600 hp MTU diesel power units, with five dedicated to Network Rail infrastructure traffic in the south of England, the remaining six being transferred to Scotland for use on the diesel-hauled legs of the Caledonian Sleeper services.
GB Railfreight has 16 Class 92 locomotives acquired by Europorte before the purchase of GB Railfreight.
GB Railfreight has also utilised heritage diesel locomotives. Class 20s are used on London Underground S Stock moves between Derby Litchurch Lane Works, Old Dalby Test Track and London Underground's Neasden Depot. It hires these from various owners including Harry Needle Railroad Company. In mid-2014 five Class 47s were hired from Riviera Trains for a short period.
GBRf has also hired in preserved locomotives, including Class 55 "Deltic" no. 55022 "Royal Scots Grey" and Class 52 "Western" no. D1015 "Western Champion".
GB Railfreight also had a pair of refurbished Vanguard 0-6-0DH locos for use at Tremorfa/Cardiff Tidal works. In December 2016, these were returned to Hunslet in favour of class 08 hired in from Harry Needle Railroad Company.
To operate services on the Lackenby steelworks, Teesside network, eight 1996/97 built Maschinenbau Kiel built locomotives were purchased from Norwegian State Railways. They were classed as Di8.
In August 2014 GBRf purchased 59003 from Heavy Haul Power International, Germany. This locomotive had originally been purchased by the Foster Yeoman group, these being the first privately owned locomotives to operate under British Rail.
In 2015 it was confirmed a further seven Class 66s would be purchased. Even though the locomotive type no longer conforms with emissions regulations, GBRf had purchased some spare EMD 710 engines, shipped them to the United Kingdom before the 31 December 2014 deadline and then returned them to the United States for fitting to the new locomotives to be delivered in 2016.
In late 2017 DB Cargo UK sold ten Class 66/0s to GBRf, who allocated the 66780-789 series to them in ascending order. 66789, was outshopped in BR Large Logo Blue and named "British Rail 1948-1997" to commemorate BR's 70th Anniversary. They also acquired three Class 47/7s from Colas Rail, for use on Caledonian sleeper and stock move duties
In June 2018 GBRf acquired 16 of the Class 56 locomotives owned by UK Rail Leasing, together with various parts. Some may be returned to traffic quickly whilst others may be re-engineered. The locomotives were previously owned by DB Cargo and subsequently hired to Fertis for high speed rail construction trains in France; after their return to the UK they were acquired by UK Rail Leasing in 2014 for spot hire. Only 56081, 56098 and 56104 had been made operational by UKRL, with the majority stored at Leicester depot.
Also in 2018 an agreement was reached with Colas Rail for GBRf to acquire all ten Class 60 locomotives that Colas had earlier purchased from DB Cargo. These were to be released in two batches, the five standard fuel tank locomotives during July 2018, followed later in the year by the five extended range locomotives.
In July 2018 GB Railfreight also bought two further Class 73 locomotives 73101 and 73139 from Loram UK.
In January 2019, GB Railfreight received two Class 50 locomotives on loan from the Class 50 Alliance Preservation Group, with both locomotives repainted into GBRf livery and returned to service in March 2019.
In June 2019 GB Railfreight acquired a lease on three class 66 locomotives from Beacon Rail, that had previously been in use in Sweden to be numbered 66790-2. The first locomotive, 66790 arrived on 3 June was moved from Immingham Docks to Longport, where Electro-Motive Diesel will convert it to UK standards before it enters traffic. The locomotives date from November 2002, and were bought by Beacon Rail in 2009 from HSBC Rail.