Scotland’s Transport Minister sees Tarmac’s rail freight expertise first hand

868 Tarmac, a leading UK sustainable building materials and construction solutions company, has hosted a visit from Derek Mackay, Scottish Government Minister for Transport and Islands at its Craiginches Sidings rail freight depot in Aberdeen. MSP Mackay learned of the role the company plays in Scotland’s rail freight and construction sectors, and conducted the official naming ceremony of Tarmac’s new locomotive, Dunbar.

The Minister was shown around the site by Chris Swan, senior manager rail and shipping for Tarmac. During his visit, Mackay heard how the company’s new five-year haulage contract with 402 Colas in Scotland, and a new fleet of modern cement rail wagons from VTG and Colas, are enhancing its capacity to meet customer requirements for high quality construction materials on national and local infrastructure projects.

Swan said: “As one of the UK’s top three private sector users of rail freight, we believe that building capacity into the network is vital to help deliver infrastructure ambitions. Tarmac transports nine million tonnes of material by rail across the UK each year, which helps us cut carbon from road vehicles and supports our plans to reduce transport CO₂ by 10% per tonne by 2020.”

Mackay said: “It was fantastic to be here in Aberdeen to see first-hand how rail freight is contributing to some of the largest and most ambitious infrastructure projects in Scotland."

The site at Craiginches directly employs three staff and three drivers, as well as supporting a number of local suppliers. It delivers a range of materials for critical Scottish infrastructure projects, including the Aberdeen Western Perimeter Road project. Tarmac also operates the only cement plant in Scotland at Dunbar, which moves hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material by rail across Scotland and northern England each year.