By the end of March 1997, it controlled 90% of the UK rail freight market, operated a fleet of 900 locomotives and 19,000 wagons, and had 7,000 employees.

During the late 1990s, EWS invested heavily into rolling stock renewal, procuring a large number of British Rail Class 66 diesel locomotives.

In October 2005, it launched a subsidiary, Euro Cargo Rail, to focus on the French market; that same year, the company acquired the wagon maintenance business Marcroft.

In November 2011, a weekly service using European sized swap bodies commenced between Barking, London and Wrocław, Poland using High Speed 1.

In October 2016, DB Cargo announced plans to cut 893 jobs in response to a sharp downturn in coal and steel traffic.

[15] A new company, North and South Railways Limited, was formed for the purpose of bidding for the ex-BR freight businesses being offered for sale.

[16] It was owned by a consortium, headed by Wisconsin Central,[5][17] and financed by multiple investment firms, including Berkshire Partners, Goldman Sachs and Fay Richwhite.

[21] A fleet of 164 locomotives and 677 postal vans were included along with depots at Bristol Barton Hill, Cambridge, Crewe and London Euston.

[23] All four companies were subsequently merged into North and South Railways,[24] nullifying the government's effort to create multiple competitive rail freight firms through the privatisation;[25] the decision to allow the creation of a rail freight company with a dominant market position was justified by the additional competition faced from other transport modes.

[32] On 24 December 1996, EWS was announced as the preferred bidder for the loss-making Railfreight Distribution,[33][34] for which it received grants and subsidies estimated to amount to £242 million over eight years .

[42][note 2] Around this time, the company was represented by a logo that was colloquially known as the "Beasties", consisting of three heads: the lion of England, the dragon of Wales and the stag of Scotland.

[43] Services included mail, locomotive hire, wagonload traffic (branded 'Enterprise', founded by Transrail Freight), cross channel trains via the Channel Tunnel, trainload freight including oil, aggregates, cement and traffic related to the coal, electricity generation and steel industries, and infrastructure trains for Railtrack.

[44] Following privatisation EWS began to compete for Intermodal contracts,[note 3] while it faced competition from Freightliner in its core markets.

[47] On 1 April 1998, open access operator National Power's rail division was taken over by EWS, along with its six Class 59 locomotives and 106 wagons.

[64][65][note 5] On 28 June 2007, Deutsche Bahn announced it had agreed to purchase EWS, subject to receiving regulatory approval,[67][68] in exchange for £309 million.

[78][79] [note 6] During 2009, DB Schenker Rail began work to enable Class 92 hauled trains to operate freight services on the High Speed 1 by installing in cab TVM signalling.

[83][84][85] DB planned to upgrade an additional five Class 92 locomotives to allow them to run on High Speed 1, making a fleet of six.

[89] From 11 November 2011, a weekly service using European sized swap bodies has run between Barking, London and Wroclaw, Poland using High Speed 1.

From 1 April 2019, Maritime took over the running of DB's freight terminals at Trafford Park (Manchester), Birmingham (Birch Coppice) and Wakefield Europort.

To enable the company to offer lower pricing to customers, EWS needed to reduce operating costs and increase availability, and quickly concluded that this goal would require new traction to be procured.

[108] According to Rail Magazine, rumours that DB Schenker was interested in replacing the Class 60's engines were prevalent around this time.

[109] The programme involved the complete overhaul, but not total replacement, of the locomotive's engine, as well as the refurbishment of various elements, including the traction motors, bogies, control gear, cabs, and electrical systems.

The company also stated that they will pledge for further research and implementation of alternative EVO based fuels to meet their climate targets.

[124] Some of its other facilities including Bristol Barton Hill, Cambridge, Eastleigh and Newcastle were transferred to fellow Deutsche Bahn subsidiary LNWR (now Arriva TrainCare).

[125][126] During 2001, EWS commenced a contract to service Virgin CrossCountry's Class 220/221 fleets at Bristol Barton Hill, Eastleigh, Newcastle, Old Oak Common and Three Bridges.

[133] By October 2014, EWS Class 67s had started hauling passenger services on behalf of Arriva Trains Wales,[134] Chiltern Railways[135] and First ScotRail.

[145][146] From September 2016, Virgin Trains East Coast hired class 90 locomotives from DB Cargo for use on services to Leeds, York and Newcastle.