Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal
Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) is a rail-road intermodal freight terminal with an associated warehousing estate in Northamptonshire, England. The facility is located at the junctions between the M1 motorway, A5 and A428 roads, 4 miles (6 km) east of Rugby and 6 miles (10 km) north of Daventry; it has a rail connection from the Northampton loop of the West Coast Main Line.
The original development of approximately 120 ha (300 acres) was built during the 1990s. of which only DIRFT south (DIRFT Railport) had a direct rail connection. An extension, often referred to as DIRFTII, of about 54 ha (130 acres) received planning permission in 2005, and is designed to have all facilities rail connected - the first occupier of DIRFT2 was Tesco, whose distribution centre reached completion in late 2011.
A second extension DIRFTIII, also rail connected, is now underway.
Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal is part of a land development project undertaken by Severn Trent Water on a 174 hectares (430 acres) site near Crick in Northamptonshire. The location, at junction 18 of the M1 motorway in close proximity to the A5 and M6 roads had been identified as early as 1978 as a "motorway orientated growth point". The ground area of the original DIRFT development is divided into three sections: DIRFT Central 16 ha (40 acres), DIRFT East 53 ha (130 acres), and DIRFT South 55 ha (140 acres) by the A5 and A428 roads.
The site first became operational in July 1997, and was officially opened in November 1997 by HRH The Princess Royal, at inception the facility included a 475,000 square feet (44,100 m2) warehouse operated for road haulage operator Eddie Stobart. The rail connected terminal was operated by Tibbett and Britten; construction of a 210,000 sq ft (20,000 m2) rail connected warehouse was started in 1998, a second 265,000 sq ft (24,600 m2) facility was constructed in 2000.
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