AV Dawson buys freight yard as Network Rail sells land packages

Port of Middlesbrough owner and operator AV Dawson has been granted clearance to take ownership of the railway goods yard, to start work on its £3 million investment that will increase its rail-borne freight business.

There were no objections to the deal, which was due to be completed by the end of August. Network Rail needed clearance from the Office of Rail and Road to proceed with the sale.

The works at Middlesbrough will centre on a new £1.8m rail discharge system and conveyer feeds to the warehouse and external storage pad, a £1m buildings upgrade, new workshop and stores, and £450,000 track realignment and drainage replacement.

Dawson has had big plans since it began leasing the site in 2015, but it needed the reassurance of land ownership.

It handles a variety of freight traffic to all parts of the UK, and the Middlesbrough yard currently has capacity for 100 wagons. The improvements will also enable ICL to increase its annual fertiliser traffic from 70,000 tonnes to 300,000.

The Middlesbrough sale is included in a new list of railway land that NR has been sanctioned to dispose of - mostly for housing. None will affect the capacity to increase services at a future date.

Other NR land sales approved this year include:

Harpenden: The layout of the Thameslink station car park is to be altered to two decks, allowing 101 spaces to be sold off to build 90 new homes.

Harrow & Wealdstone: The station car park was requisitioned by NR in 2022 to create an engineering base for its West Coast electrification teams. It will be sold next year to build up to 135 houses.

Knebworth: A small footpath to the station has been closed to improve the lives of residents in a new block of flats.

Redhill: An acre of land around the station is being sold to pay for improvements that were approved in 2013, but never happened. There will be new housing and better access to the town centre.

Surbiton: While a new 250-space multi-storey car park will not be able to cope with peak demand, South Western Railway has not objected to 252 new homes being built on the old site. The money raised helped pay for a lift to the station overbridge from the southern car park, and general refurbishment.

Walton-on-Thames: Since COVID, the NR-owned 250-space car park is less than half full at peak times. The money raised from building houses will bring forward general station improvements that might include extra waiting shelters and alterations to the congested forecourt. This could happen in 2026.