PRESS RELEASE: GoExpress hails 90mph Middle Mile Rail Trial that could potentially cut Anglo-Scottish transit times by up to 50%

🚀 Big news from GoExpress!

GoExpress has today published the headline results of its high speed, low carbon logistics proof of concept operation - the UKs first high-speed middle mile operation at a sustained maximum speed of 90mph (145km/h).

Across four weeks on the West Coast Main Line, the trial was able to demonstrate the feasibility of introducing new high speed intermodal rail services for the express logistics sector on key linehaul routes across the country.

The project was supported by an industry wide workstream. Operated using state of the art, energy efficient tri-mode locomotives hauling 40ft high cube containers, GoExpress successfully ran 54 special test trains on dedicated high-speed paths provided by Network Rail.

Funded by the Department for Transport’s Freight Innovation Fund, GoExpress is supported by Connected Places Catapult, Network Rail, the Rail Safety and Standards Board, industry experts, academia, and Courier and Express Parcel sector operator DPD.

Headline Programme results

• Anglo-Scottish rail transit times halved from eight hours to four hours thirty minutes, with end-to-end transit time between DPD’s Hub in Leicestershire and the firm’s Glasgow Eurocentral Distribution Centre completed in under seven hours.
• On-time arrival for 53 of 54 journeys.
• Energy efficient technology uses the train’s momentum to generate electricity and reduce overall energy consumption, with a metered average of more than 1100 kWh generated per journey, enough to power an eHGV for more than 500 miles.
• Metered energy consumption over 270 miles using overhead electrification for a 20-container train demonstrated reduced energy consumption of 58% versus eHGV.
• The solution offers an alternative to heavy long distance road transport, currently powered by diesel and Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO). Using actual rail energy consumption data from the trial, each rail journey using renewable electricity would reduce the carbon impact of each container’s journey by more than 390kg versus diesel powered road transport, and more than 74kg versus HVO (Base carbon).
• Full scale commercial adoption offers significant cost reduction opportunities through efficient use of energy, infrastructure and equipment, in addition to the service benefits of reduced transit times. Optimisation in West Coast Main Line path utilisation creates more capacity on the railway without the need for investment in new infrastructure to increase revenues.
• Overnight energy use for express parcels utilises baseload renewable energy and supports UK Grid management.

Founder commentary - GoExpress

"Our trial demonstrates that express logistics companies can rapidly optimise their middle-mile networks through the adoption of high-speed rail. For operators under pressure to take time, cost and carbon out of their networks, our reliable high-speed rail product is now a proven, commercial option which can complement existing eHGV rollout and scope 3 sustainability targets. The technology exists, the reliability is there, and GoExpress is ready to make it a day-to-day part of the UK supply chain.'
- Adam Parkinson, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, GoExpress

Customer perspective – DPD UK
The trial’s industry partner is DPD UK and involved the parcel firm’s Leicestershire sort centre Hub in the Midlands, and its Glasgow Mossend Eurocentral distribution centre to evaluate how their middle-mile network could potentially be optimised for high-speed rail.

"We have been involved in this programme from the start, and this is certainly a significant step in terms of proving the concept and gaining real world experience. As a company, we are committed to innovating and improving every aspect of our operation to be as sustainable as possible and that means challenging how things have always been done and looking at radical alternatives like this. The trial has helped us understand how rail could work in this context and how our operation can adapt to it'.
- Paul Herring, Sustainability Manager, DPD UK

Rail industry context – Network Rail
The UK government has set the rail industry with a target of a 75% increase in net tonne kms by 2050. The rail sector currently moves around 9% of UK surface freight (by tonne-kilometres). Industry analysis suggests that a faster, nimbler rail product such as this could shift a further 4-5 percentage points on to this over the next decade, with disproportionate gains on the middle mile lanes where there are significant cost and HGV driver demographic challenges.

The Industry Faster Freight workstream has successfully brought together experts from across the sector to explore what needs to be true to enable logistics trains to run up to 90mph (145km/h). This trial marks a significant milestone in those efforts where the project team has been able to prove that it is possible. Now we need to leverage that momentum and work towards making it “Business as Usual”.

“We’re really pleased to support these trials, which show how journey times between key intermodal logistics hubs in Scotland and the Midlands can be significantly reduced. This creates an important opportunity to open up new markets in the Courier, Express and Parcel sector, support greater competition with road haulage, and help drive decarbonisation. My thanks go to the teams across the industry who have worked together to deliver this milestone.”
- Anit Chandarana, Group Director, System Operator, Network Rail

Funding Innovation – Connected Places Catapult
GoExpress was originally established with support from the Department for Transport’s Freight Innovation Fund, which is delivered by Connected Places Catapult. The Fund serves as a strategic enabler of decarbonisation, system efficiency and economic growth. It focuses on scalable innovation, real world trials and improved use of data to accelerate deployment and enable the commercial scale-up of small- to medium-sized enterprises in the freight and logistics sector.

For this trial, GoExpress has benefitted from bespoke trial delivery and commercial support from experts at the Catapult, alongside £150,000 (incl. VAT) of funding via the Freight Innovation Fund.

“GoExpress is showing impressive traction in the rail logistics sector, and this trial helps to validate its commercial offering. This is a great example of how targeted support and funding from the Government’s Freight Innovation Fund is helping businesses to succeed in bringing new solutions to the market, faster.”
- Sameer Savani, Transport Managing Director, Connected Places Catapult

Maintaining safety and standards whilst enabling Innovation - RSSB
The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) was a co-funder of the trial, working collaboratively with GoExpress and fellow co-funders - each playing to its respective strengths to enable innovation that improves railway efficiency and to make the pilot happen. As an independent body, RSSB supported the trial operation to capture high-quality operational data, providing the robust, independent evidence needed to support a future roll-out.

That evidence is intended to underpin timely updates to rail standards - the mechanism that turns a one-off pilot into a scalable, business-as-usual activity rather than a single proof of concept. In this way the GoExpress pilot provides a framework for the wider industry to innovate at pace, with RSSB playing its part to maintain the safety and assurance the network depends on.

“What GoExpress has demonstrated here goes beyond a faster intermodal train. A rail logistics offer that is genuinely complementary to road on speed, reliability and carbon creates benefits across the whole network, making it work harder for everyone. RSSB’s role in this trial was to ensure the evidence generated is rigorous enough to underpin the standards and safety framework that will take high-speed intermodal logistics from proof of concept to everyday operation. That’s how a 20-year ambition becomes business as usual.”
- Mark Phillips, Chief Executive, RSSB

What’s next
With the commercial case proven, GoExpress is now building toward regular 90mph middle-mile services and is calling on express logistics operators that want to take cost, time and carbon out of long-haul UK lanes to reach out. Additional partners will be able to help shape these services and secure priority capacity on the first routes to launch.

GoExpress aims to become end to end market leaders in high speed, low carbon electrified logistics, supporting UK plc with a resilient and sustainable logistics sector.

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