Secretary of State for Transport opens new railway sleeper factory which is bringing new jobs to South Yorkshire: Layout of Doncaster Concrete sleeper factory

Monday 9 Dec 2013

Secretary of State for Transport opens new railway sleeper factory which is bringing new jobs to South Yorkshire

Region & Route:
| Eastern

Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, Secretary of State for Transport, today (Monday 9 December) officially opened a new state-of-the-art factory in Doncaster which will supply of thousands of essential sleepers to keep Britain’s railways running.

Doncaster Concrete Sleeper Factory, which will employ around 45 people, will supply around 400, 000 concrete sleepers each year for Network Rail to use around the network. Between 700,000 and 1,000,000 sleepers are needed each year.

Commenting at the opening, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “Thanks to the ongoing investment by Network Rail in our national railway infrastructure companies like the Trackwork Moll, a concrete railway sleeper factory in Doncaster, are keeping our trains moving, delivering massive benefits for passengers and the economy thanks to faster, more frequent and reliable services.”

Concrete sleepers are used on all the busier inter-urban and long distance rail routes as well as those carrying heavy freight tonnages. The supply of sleepers has been limited to a reducing number of companies over recent years.

Martin Elwood, director of Network Rail’s National Delivery Service, explained: “This factory is an important part of our strategy to protect and improve our supply chains for essential components on our railways and also to help reduce the cost of our track renewals. As well as re-introducing competition to the market, our investment in the factory when added to Trackwork Moll’s part-automated, modern production methods will all contribute to driving down costs.

“This site in Doncaster is ideal as it is central to the network and already has excellent rail links. The on-site laboratory and distribution centre also help to reduce transport costs.”

Trackwork Moll is a new company which managed the design and build of the factory and is contracted to supply sleepers to Network Rail for the next ten years. It is jointly owned by Trackwork of Kirk Sandall, Doncaster and Leonhard Moll Betonwerke of Munich, Germany.

Peter Heubeck, General Manager, said: “Sleepers are not a glamorous part of the railway but they play an absolutely essential role in supporting the track, making sure that trains can run safely and reliably day after day. Through this purpose-built facility we will supply these vital components reliably and at a highly competitive cost.”

Local skills and expertise have been used in the design and build of the factory. J F Finnegan of Sheffield was the design and build contractor; Race Cottam Associates based in Sheffield were project architects and the Doncaster office of Hannah Reed were the consulting civil engineers. All of the principal contractors were based within 50 miles of the site.

Notes to editors

Network Rail renews more than 1,000 miles of railway each year

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -London North Eastern & East Midlands route
01904 383180
mediarelations@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

Follow us on Twitter: @networkrail
Visit our online newsroom: www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk