Advenza Freight
| Industry | Rail freight |
|---|---|
| Fate | Wound up |
| Founded | 8 February 2001 |
| Founder | Tony Hagon |
| Defunct | 7 October 2009 |
| Parent | Cotswold Rail |
| Website | www.advenzafreight.com |
Advenza Freight was an English rail freight company based in Gloucester. It was part of the Cotswold Rail group. The company was wound up in October 2009.
Advenza Freight was founded in 2001. It obtained a safety case in 2002 and a licence to operate from the Rail Regulator on 16 November 2003.
The company initially sought guarantees from Network Rail on timing and regularity of train paths, but was only able to obtain permission to "spot bid" for free train paths, and so was unable reliably to secure paths for its trains to be able to commence commercially viable operations. Both types of right have restrictive flex provisions for Network Rail and stipulate a maximum turn round time. It then sought guarantees from Network Rail through the Office of Rail Regulation regarding the provision of paths for its trains, in January 2004, it reached agreement with Network Rail, and was to start running containerised palletised freight from London (Barking) to Glasgow.
Advenza was scheduled to commence operating between Barking, Essex (Roadways Limited's sidings) and Deanside Glasgow (John G Russell) in April 2004, using trains of containers which would be trans-shipped from rail to the respective operator depots to tranship pallet load freight. This was using three cycles a week, north bound Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and southbound Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday. However, due to uncertainties with the provision of locomotives and the fact that the supporting systems were not yet in place even though all the drivers had been route-trained, the launch was postponed.
Following negotiations with other train operators to provide rolling stock and traction, refinancing of the company introducing new investors, completion of the IT systems, further training of the drivers, and being able to obtain fixed paths from Network Rail, the "FreightBus" service commenced operations now between Willesden, London and Mossend, Glasgow on 25 October 2004. This was a nightly service in both directions, operating as the UK's only Class 1 freight service at the time, hauled by EWS Class 90 electric locomotives operating up to 110 mph. The north and south bound services were timed to meet at Preston where the train crews would change over. For the three weeks that the service was in operation, only one train was late on arrival.
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