February 25 - PD Ports says that it will handle the majority of Hitachi Transport System Europe's (HTSE) railcar imports destined for Hitachi's new rail vehicle manufacturing facility (RVMF) in Newton Aycliffe, UK.
The train body shells are being shipped into Teesport - which is owned by PD Ports - on "K" Line's new ro-ro service from Japan; while some of the shells are being transported to the UK port by road, where they will be stored before oncarriage to the Hitachi facility.
The "K" Line service, which began in September 2015, will see the Japanese shipping line's new 7,500 ceu ro-ro vessels deliver the train shells from the Port of Tokuyama-Kudamatsu to Teesport in around 35 days. Each vessel will carry a maximum of 18 railcar body shells.
Once at the UK port, the 26 m long railcars are towed from the vessel and manoeuvred using bespoke lifting equipment, before being placed onto trailers for transport to a storage area at the gateway.
