Fastline

Fastline Ltd

Fate	Dissolved
Founded	1994
Defunct	2010
Headquarters	Doncaster, United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom
Services	Freight transportation Track maintenance equipment
Parent	Jarvis
Website	www.fastline-uk.com

Fastline Class 56 56303 seen at Kingsheath operating an intermodal service in 2007.

Fastline Class 66 66434 seen at Chester operating a Chirk to Carlisle logging train for Colas Rail, 4 months after Fastline ceased trading.

Fastline was a railway freight operator, which was part of Jarvis plc. It operated a fleet of Class 56 and Class 66 locomotives. The class 56s cost £700,000 each to refurbish. A fourth and a fifth Class 56 (56311 & 56312) were hired in from Hanson Traction Ltd. Fastline's base was at Doncaster, Yorkshire. It ceased trading when Jarvis plc entered administration and subsequently ceased trading in late March 2010. The company is in administration with N.G. Edwards, N.B. Kahn, P.S. Bowers and I. Brown of Deloitte LLP.

Operations

Container traffic

The company's main operation at first was 4O90, a container train to Thamesport on the Isle of Grain, which operated in the afternoon/evening, and returned in the early hours of the next morning, usually utilising Class 56 locomotives. Since the end of Fastline's container traffic flows from Doncaster to the Isle of Grain, the class 56s were intended to be used on Fastline's coal flows.

Coal flows

They also ran several coal flows including from Hatfield to Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, using Class 66s and a new build of coal hoppers. Coal flows run by Fastline included:

• Coal from Daw Mill to Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station
• Coal from Hatfield Colliery to Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station
• Coal from Daw Mill to Cottam Power Station
• Coal from Immingham to Ironbridge Power Station

Fleet details

Each machine (except number 66434) is currently for sale by administrators

Number	Class	Livery	Introduced	Status
56301	56	Fastline Grey	2005	Barrow Hill
56302	56	Fastline Grey	2005	Barrow Hill
56303	56	Great Western Railway green livery	2005	Previously hired from FM Rail/RVEL Operational
66301	66	DRS blue	2008	Operational
66302	66	DRS blue	2008	Operational
66303	66	DRS blue	2008	Operational
66304	66	DRS blue	2008	Operational
66305	66	DRS blue	2008	Operational
66434	66	DRS Malcolm branding	2008	Operational

A track tamper in Jarvis PLC Fastline livery at Chester station.

Locomotive disposals

Numbers 56301 and 56302 have been preserved and were moved to Barrow Hill Engine Shed in April 2011.