A new rail route for the transportation of aggregates by Cemex, the building materials provider has started.

A new rail route for the transportation of aggregates by Cemex, the building materials provider has started.

The route from Neath in South Wales to the Cemex railhead at Sturton, near Leeds in West Yorkshire, northern England, is used to transport high psv (polished stone value) aggregate quarried from Cemex’s Gilfach Quarry.

The new route has the potential to transport 150,000 tonnes per year of Gilfach’s Blue Pennant sandstone, which has a psv of 68, the highest natural psv aggregate available.

This superior aggregate is used in high specification asphalt applications, such as in the M4 motorway extension in 2008, which used 75% sandstone from Gilfach plus 25% recycled aggregates.

The first train of 1700tonnes pulled 24 hoppers each containing approximately 70tonnes of aggregate, in total equivalent to 85 truck loads. CO2 emissions from rail are five times lower per tonne transported compared to road, with the added advantage that using rail also helps reduce traffic on the roads.  
From Stourton, aggregates will be distributed not only to Cemex asphalt and readymix concrete plants within a 32km radius but also to individual building contractors for projects in north-east England.

Cemex transports aggregates and pulverised fly-ash by 15 different routes covering over 9.6 million train rail kilometres. In 2009 this represented nearly 30 million truck kilometres that were replaced by rail transportation and represented 12% of total aggregate movements.

In 2010 four new rail routes are planned including Neath to railheads at Washwood Heath in Birmingham, central England, and Bletchley near Milton Keynes, south-east England. The increase in rail is part of a national strategy to make all grades of aggregates available by rail or water throughout the Cemex network.