GB Railfreight to run Drax services exclusively on HVO in 2025

GB Railfreight (GBRf), one of the UK’s leading transporters of goods for businesses and consumers, has signed a 12-month agreement with leading renewable energy company Drax to use Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) for its rail freight services. Throughout 2025, GBRf will operate its rail freight services from The Port of Liverpool and The Port of Tyne to Drax Power Station in Selby, Yorkshire, exclusively on HVO.

Since 2016, GB Railfreight’s trains have moved over 15m tonnes of sustainable biomass between Peel Ports, Liverpool and Drax Power Station in Selby, Yorkshire. The biomass hauled by these 10,000 train journeys – equivalent to three journeys per day – helps Drax Power Station to provide enough power for up to 4 million homes and businesses. The Selby site provides around 8% of the UK’s renewable energy and c.4% of the country’s total electricity usage. These services play a critical role in supporting the UK energy security and transition to net zero.

This HVO agreement is another milestone in GB Railfreight delivering its decarbonisation strategy, with it recently announcing that its Class 99 locomotives will run solely on electricity or renewable fuels like HVO. Marketed as one of the ‘world’s greenest fuels’, HVO is synthetically produced through the hydro-treatment process using vegetable oils or animal fats, this significantly reduces the harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions when used in diesel locomotives.