Stobart Rail Freight

On 19 September 2006, Stobart Rail launched its inaugural daily freight service for a three-year deal to deliver cross-border goods for the British retailer Tesco.

On the return journey to Rugby, roughly 90% of its capacity would typically be filled by Tesco while the remaining 10% would be occupied by Coca-Cola; one train could convey the equivalent of 26 lorries in each direction each day.

The train travels at an average speed of 40 miles per hour (64 km/h), which is comparable with a lorry, although the whole process takes slightly longer because of additional loading and unloading.

[12][13] The Daventry – Scotland Stobart contract transferred to DB Schenker in January 2010, along with the onward daily service to Inverness, though this reverted to DRS operation in summer 2011.

[14][15] In May 2008, Stobart's chief executive Andrew Tinkler announced that the company was in the advanced stages of planning for an additional six train-based services, not counting the existing freight contracts with Tesco.

Covering a 1,100 miles (1,800 km) distance, it span from Valencia, Spain to the Ripple Lane intermodal depot in Dagenham, East London, via the Eurotunnel.

The fully refrigerated goods service, which provided an alternative to lorries for the import of fresh Spanish salad-vegetables, was the longest train journey in Europe by a single operator at the time.