Tesco takes the green track moving to rail in Scotland

Tesco is talking to manufacturers keen to share space on freight trains heading south from Inverness to Grangemouth in a new transport initiative.

The retailer aims to start moving ambient groceries and non-food products between the two railheads from the spring, according to regional transport director Sandy Thomson."We have enough volume to warrant a dedicated trip north, but we're talking to manufacturers to help fill the trip southbound. We're hoping to start in March, but we need to do some capital work at Inverness.

"The goods need to be moved from lorries coming from Livingstone [Tesco's distribution centre] on to trains at Grangemouth, so we need specialist lifting equipment. This project is also unusual because goods are going from the train to lorries travelling directly to stores, so we're dealing with roll cages."

He added: "Initially the focus is on dry goods because you've got a bit more flexibility in terms of lead times. We're also looking at moving goods between Grangemouth and Aberdeen, though the business case isn't as good. Inverness makes sense because there's a large concentration of stores in the area, the road [the A9] up there isn't great and it's a long way to the nearest distribution centre."

The move follows Tesco's £3.2M project to transport non-food by train daily from Daventry to Grangemouth - saving 4.5M road miles and 6,000t of CO2 a year.