Cemex and DB Cargo UK have teamed up to open a ‘pop up’ rail depot to serve the construction market in the North West, and will be based in Warrington.

It is hoped that the new depot will cut down on the number of lorries on Britain’s roads and was installed in the space of a few weeks alongside the West Coast Mainline using an office and a ready made weighbridge.

It is anticipated that the temporary site will handle approximately 125,000 tonnes of aggregates every year.

It will be used to receive aggregates transported from Derbyshire’s Dove Holes Quarry on rail services that run twice a week, with each train having the capacity to transport around 1,540 tonnes of aggregates.

By comparison, if these were to be transported by road, up to 150 HGVs would be required.

DB Cargo has also been handed the responsibility of unloading the aggregates at the new pop up rail depot in Warrington, where they will later be transported to local construction sites and concrete plants by road.

Head of Cemex Rail and Sea, Mark Grimshaw-Smith, said that the benefit of a pop up depot such as the one in Warrington is that it can be installed much more quickly, in weeks as opposed to months, and provides a greater degree of flexibility in moving the aggregates from quarries to sites where they are required, especially in the short term.

Therefore, he believes that if a suitable piece of land is identified close to the rail network, then a depot can be created.

Mr Grimshaw-Smith also added that there are a number of significant environmental and economic benefits of rail transportation over road methods, most notably the considerable CO2 emission reductions and on busy roads time will be saved.

Last year Cemex transported 2.3 million tonnes by rail, which is equal to 80,000 truck journeys.