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Freightliner Group
Freightliner Group is a rail freight and logistics company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Brookfield, a Canadian investment management company and GIC, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.
It was originally created after the Transport Act 1968 as Freightliner Limited, a British government-owned company. From its onset, Freightliner was focused on the haulage of international traffic, thus came to centre its activities around Britain's sea ports, often building new multimodal freight depots adjacent to such locations to better capture this business. During the late 1970s, it was reorganised under British Rail, and became a part of its Railfreight Distribution subsidiary during the late 1980s. Work to expand the loading gauge on routes such as the East Coast Main Line were undertaken, allowing trains hauling larger containers to use those routes, were conducted around this time. Numerous domestic depots previously operated by Freightliner were closed during the 1990s in preparation for the privatisation of British Rail that same decade.
As a consequence of the privatisation initiative, the business unit was reorganised as Freightliner Limited; on 25 May 1996, it was privatised and sold in a management buyout, supported by 3i and Electra Private Equity for £5.4 million. Freightliner quickly set about modernising and expanding its locomotive fleet, ordering Class 57 and Class 66 locomotives. During 1999, it established the Heavy Haul business; five years later, the Logico service was also launched. By 2014, Freightliner Limited had become the largest intermodal freight transport operator in the United Kingdom, as well as the second largest freight operating company in the country by revenue, behind DB Cargo UK. It had also expanded its operations into various other countries, including Australia, the Netherlands and Poland.
In 2008, Freightliner Group was purchased by Railinvest Holding Company, a subsidiary of Arcapita Bank of Bahrain. In 2015, Freightliner was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming. In 2024, it was split from Genesee & Wyoming by its parent companies Brookfield and GIC. In 2025, the UK intermodal business was sold along with the 'Freightliner' brand in the UK to CMA CGM. The UK bulk haulage business was retained by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and GIC and renamed Heavy Haul Rail.
The idea of shipping freight in set-sized containers went back to the 1930s in the UK with the adoption of the Conflat system. But it was Dr Richard Beeching who, in his report Reshaping Britain's Railways, advanced the concept of containerised freight in the UK.
Beeching proposed 55 depots placed strategically across the UK, serviced by fixed-consist permanently coupled air-braked trains, with an average journey between depots of 150 miles (240 km) and a shortest distance of 50 miles (80 km). British Rail progressed with the concept, envisaging 40-foot (12 m) length wagons – later increased to 60 ft (18 m) – carrying 8 ft × 8 ft × 8 ft (2.4 m × 2.4 m × 2.4 m) standard sized international shipping containers in lengths of 10 to 27 ft (3.0 to 8.2 m), later adapted to 20 to 40 ft (6.1 to 12.2 m). These BR UK-adopted standards were formed on the basis of analysis of then current international intermodal practise, and later adopted as the base of the internationally agreed ISO 668. Containers would be loaded at the dedicated inland terminals, using gantry cranes for transshipment between road and rail.
During January 1964, the prototype flat wagon was produced by Shildon railway works; later that same year, 100 production wagons were turned out from Ashford railway works. The first revenue-earning train ran between York Way/Maiden Lane in North London and Gushetfaulds in Glasgow on 15 November 1965. Soon adopting the Freightliner name, the first single-shipper train was operated on 20 August 1968, hauling specially designed 30-foot (9.1 m) containers carrying parts for Ford Escort cars that were destined for assembly in plants on the European mainland.
Beeching's original concept envisioned Freightliner servicing a domestic freight market, which by 1968 had resulted in British Railways developing 17 purpose-built depots. However, Freightliner's most profitable routes were those servicing Britain's major ports, specifically traffic to/from continental Europe and Ireland, as well as import/export traffic to the rest of the world. This pattern of profitability was recognised in the Transport Act 1968, whereby Freightliner became a separate listed commercial company wholly owned by the UK Government, but which leased its UK domestic rail transport from British Railways.
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Freightliner Group
Freightliner Group is a rail freight and logistics company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Brookfield, a Canadian investment management company and GIC, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.
It was originally created after the Transport Act 1968 as Freightliner Limited, a British government-owned company. From its onset, Freightliner was focused on the haulage of international traffic, thus came to centre its activities around Britain's sea ports, often building new multimodal freight depots adjacent to such locations to better capture this business. During the late 1970s, it was reorganised under British Rail, and became a part of its Railfreight Distribution subsidiary during the late 1980s. Work to expand the loading gauge on routes such as the East Coast Main Line were undertaken, allowing trains hauling larger containers to use those routes, were conducted around this time. Numerous domestic depots previously operated by Freightliner were closed during the 1990s in preparation for the privatisation of British Rail that same decade.
As a consequence of the privatisation initiative, the business unit was reorganised as Freightliner Limited; on 25 May 1996, it was privatised and sold in a management buyout, supported by 3i and Electra Private Equity for £5.4 million. Freightliner quickly set about modernising and expanding its locomotive fleet, ordering Class 57 and Class 66 locomotives. During 1999, it established the Heavy Haul business; five years later, the Logico service was also launched. By 2014, Freightliner Limited had become the largest intermodal freight transport operator in the United Kingdom, as well as the second largest freight operating company in the country by revenue, behind DB Cargo UK. It had also expanded its operations into various other countries, including Australia, the Netherlands and Poland.
In 2008, Freightliner Group was purchased by Railinvest Holding Company, a subsidiary of Arcapita Bank of Bahrain. In 2015, Freightliner was acquired by Genesee & Wyoming. In 2024, it was split from Genesee & Wyoming by its parent companies Brookfield and GIC. In 2025, the UK intermodal business was sold along with the 'Freightliner' brand in the UK to CMA CGM. The UK bulk haulage business was retained by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and GIC and renamed Heavy Haul Rail.
The idea of shipping freight in set-sized containers went back to the 1930s in the UK with the adoption of the Conflat system. But it was Dr Richard Beeching who, in his report Reshaping Britain's Railways, advanced the concept of containerised freight in the UK.
Beeching proposed 55 depots placed strategically across the UK, serviced by fixed-consist permanently coupled air-braked trains, with an average journey between depots of 150 miles (240 km) and a shortest distance of 50 miles (80 km). British Rail progressed with the concept, envisaging 40-foot (12 m) length wagons – later increased to 60 ft (18 m) – carrying 8 ft × 8 ft × 8 ft (2.4 m × 2.4 m × 2.4 m) standard sized international shipping containers in lengths of 10 to 27 ft (3.0 to 8.2 m), later adapted to 20 to 40 ft (6.1 to 12.2 m). These BR UK-adopted standards were formed on the basis of analysis of then current international intermodal practise, and later adopted as the base of the internationally agreed ISO 668. Containers would be loaded at the dedicated inland terminals, using gantry cranes for transshipment between road and rail.
During January 1964, the prototype flat wagon was produced by Shildon railway works; later that same year, 100 production wagons were turned out from Ashford railway works. The first revenue-earning train ran between York Way/Maiden Lane in North London and Gushetfaulds in Glasgow on 15 November 1965. Soon adopting the Freightliner name, the first single-shipper train was operated on 20 August 1968, hauling specially designed 30-foot (9.1 m) containers carrying parts for Ford Escort cars that were destined for assembly in plants on the European mainland.
Beeching's original concept envisioned Freightliner servicing a domestic freight market, which by 1968 had resulted in British Railways developing 17 purpose-built depots. However, Freightliner's most profitable routes were those servicing Britain's major ports, specifically traffic to/from continental Europe and Ireland, as well as import/export traffic to the rest of the world. This pattern of profitability was recognised in the Transport Act 1968, whereby Freightliner became a separate listed commercial company wholly owned by the UK Government, but which leased its UK domestic rail transport from British Railways.