Last week the Thames Gateway Minister, Bob Neill, officially opened a new £13.5 million freight link from the North Kent Line to the former Lafarge Cement Works at Northfleet. The Minister, along with invited guests, travelled in a special passenger train from London Victoria into Lafarge’s Northfleet site on the reinstated rail link.
The new freight line will initially be used to transport excavated material from the construction of Crossrail’s tunnels in London by rail rather than by road. The length of the new freight line is about 2.25km with 4.75km of new track provided.
The excavated material will be transferred to ship at Northfleet, for the final part of its journey along the Thames to a new RSPB nature reserve at Wallasea Island in Essex.