Vectos

Vectos is pleased the State of Secretary for Transport has approved the Development Consent Order (DCO) for the West Midlands Interchange (WMI) project.

WMI is a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange with 743,200 sqm of warehousing and other associated development that would be built on land west of Junction 12 of the M6 in South Staffordshire. It will be linked directly to the West Coast Main Line, one of the country’s principal rail freight routes, and will be well placed to serve the West Midlands, the Black Country, Staffordshire, Birmingham, the northern M6 corridor and parts of Warwickshire.

Vectos initially provided a peer review and was subsequently brought on board to provide ongoing strategic transport advice during the formulation of the DCO including a strategic review of the various transport DCO documents.

Vectos Director David Bird said the scheme will help the logistics and manufacturing industries to grow. The region’s strong manufacturing and exporting businesses need faster, more reliable transport links to stay competitive at home and abroad.

“With so much uncertainty around future travel patterns at present, it’s important for schemes like this to go ahead, to help ease congestion locally and nationally by reducing HGV journeys and to offer a more efficient means of transporting goods across the country to and from this part of the West Midlands,” he said.

Tonne for tonne, transporting goods by rail produces 70% less carbon dioxide, up to 15 times lower nitrogen oxide emissions and nearly 90% lower particulate emissions than by road.

“The environment and sustainable transport are so high on public, corporate and government agendas and the climate crisis could be at a critical turning point, so the approval of this scheme is even more vital. It has the potential to provide huge progress towards achieving a net zero carbon economy,” he said.