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| ABOUT EWS: COMPANY HISTORY |
| EWS (English Welsh & Scottish Railway
Ltd) was launched in February 1996 after the
company acquired four divisions of British
Rail's rail freight operations - Rail Express
Systems, Loadhaul, Transrail Freight and Mainline
Freight. This was followed the purchase of
the National Power Rail Unit and British Rail's
European division - Railfreight Distribution. |
| These divisions were merged to form EWS,
a company that was able to provide customers
with a nationwide and European network of
rail freight services, engineering support
and services to the rail industry. All these
companies were branded EWS, apart from Railfreight
Distribution was branded EWS International. |
| Following the purchase of these rail freight
divisions, EWS began a major £500 million
investment programme. This saw the company
invest in, and develop with General Motors,
a new innovative generation of rail freight
diesel locomotive - the class 66. The class
66 has provided EWS services with exceptional
levels of performance and other operators
have followed EWS by ordering this locomotive,
making the class 66 the diesel freight locomotive
of choice across Europe. EWS has 250 of these
locomotives and they form the backbone of
the company's locomotive fleet. |
| EWS also worked with General Motors to develop
a new high-speed freight locomotive, which
became the class 67. This is the first freight
locomotive in Britain to travel at a maximum
speed of 125mph and EWS invested in 30 of
these locomotives. |
| At the same time, EWS placed a major order
for 2,500 new wagons from US wagon builder
Thrall. Half of these wagons were new high
capacity coal wagons, which have enabled EWS
to haul greater quantities of coal per train
than ever before. |
| Since 1996, EWS has strongly marketed its
nationwide service abilities and has successfully
played a major role in growing rail freight
in Britain. This has increased by over 50%
since 1996, and rail currently has a 11% market
share of all land hauled freight in Britain.
Traffic volumes continue to grow and new markets
are continually being won to rail by EWS,
including fast moving consumer goods. |
| EWS offers customers with a superior level
of service in Britain, and aims to be the
leading rail operator in Europe. |
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| “11%
market share of all land hauled freight
in Britain” |
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