DB Cargo UK
Last updated 25 May 2026
Bulk freight operator carrying coal, metals, aggregates, and automotive across the UK rail network, with particular presence in the Yorkshire, Humber, and western corridors.
| Active since | 1996 |
| Trailing 12-period A2F | Fewer than 12 closed periods of clean data on record — available once the pipeline reaches 12 complete periods. |
| Schedule 8 — CP7 cumulative | Available under commercial licence. CP7 rates £25.81/min NR-to-FOC, £51.98/min FOC-to-NR (2× asymmetry). Bilateral net position is the licensed product — see methodology. |
| Fleet specialisation | Bulk-led (metals, aggregates, automotive, and bulk liquids) |
| Parent / ownership | DB Cargo AG (wholly owned subsidiary) |
Latest period summary
DB Cargo UK ran 3,688 freight services in Period 13 2025-26 at 91% A2F punctuality, below at least one peer freight operator on 13 of the 14 corridors it shared with another FOC over the period. Schedule 8 monetises every minute of attributable delay at CP7 rates: £25.81/min (NR-to-FOC) and £51.98/min (FOC-to-NR).
Reports
Corridors served
Methodology & sources
All figures derive from Network Rail's NROD TRUST feed, processed via the Gauge Intelligence ingest pipeline. Period definitions, A2F (Arrival to Fifteen), the Wilson 90% interval, daily anomaly rules, cross-view reconciliation, and delay attribution are documented at:
Data window — period boundaries and the data-as-of cutoff
League tables — cross-view reconciliation across the four analytical views
Anomaly detection — daily A2F SPC rules
Delay attribution — DAPR cause-code breakdown
Forecasting — prediction intervals and possession-exposure estimates
DB Cargo UK is the British subsidiary of the German parent company and concentrates on bulk traffic — metals, aggregates, automotive flows, and bulk liquids. Its heaviest corridor presence in Period 2 2026-27 was across the Northern Ports & Transpennine and South & West Yorkshire corridors, reflecting its focus on industrial flows into and out of the Humber and Yorkshire hinterland. DB Cargo carries across a range of the published supply-chain sites, including Drax Power Station (principal carrier at around 53% of journeys), Scunthorpe Steelworks (around 86%), Margam Steel Terminal (around 98%), Peak Forest Quarries (around 48%), Mendip aggregates quarries (around 20%), Earles Sidings (Hope cement works) (around 16%), and Westbury Aggregates Terminal (around 21%).