THE first delivery of fresh food produce on a fully refrigerated rail service from Spain to the UK has been successfully completed, with plans to extend its frequency and reach to the banks of the River Mersey.

Transport giant Stobart and its European rail partner, DB Schenker, ran the first scheduled service from Valencia, via the Eurotunnel, to a rail head at motor giant Ford’s Dagenham plant last Friday.

The weekly 1,100-mile journey is a pioneering service that will remove millions of truck miles from Europe’s roads and is ripe for expansion to Stobart’s 3G multi-modal transport hub at Widnes, which embraces rail, road and marine operations alongside a huge capacity for warehousing and distribution.

Stobart chief executive Andrew Tinkler said: “In conjunction with our partner, DB Schenker, we will start the new service with one train per week, but we believe that, when our customers see the benefits, we will soon be able to develop this into a daily service, increasing the efficiencies and environmental benefits by a factor of five.”

Chief operating officer William Stobart revealed the group plans to extend the expanded service to its Widnes site.

“We are actively investigating the opportunity to extend the train service from Dagenham to our multi-modal terminal at Widnes, which is the ideal hub for distribution into the heartland of the UK.

“An extension of the train to this facility would take even more trucks off Britain’s crowded road network.”

He added: “At Widnes, we also have extensive chilled warehouse and distribution facilities, adding further synergies.”