Supply chain

The eight register entries below cover the largest end consumers of rail freight in Britain. They split into power generation at Drax, integrated steelmaking at Scunthorpe and Margam, deep potash mining at Boulby, cement at Earles, and aggregates and stone at Peak Forest, Mendip Quarries, and Westbury.

Each register entry stamps the carrier mix and the BPLAN-resolved TIPLOC footprint against the 90-day data window to 25 May 2026. Below the eight register entries, a second table lists the Network Rail marshalling yards and freight junctions that carry endpoint activity in the same window, aggregated by yard. Nuclear, defence, and major-infrastructure flows follow at category level; the per-section notes below explain why per-site figures are withheld.

Industrial sites

Inbound and outbound journey counts are computed live from Network Rail TRUST data across the 90-day data window to the most recent close, attributed by destination and origin TIPLOC. The trailing baseline and per-period reliability figures publish on the per-period site reports as the data window covers full closed periods. See the league-table methodology and the data-window methodology.

Network Rail yards and junctions

Marshalling yards, reception sidings, and freight junctions carry trains between origin and destination. Operational performance attributes to the operator and the destination, not to the yard the train passes through. The table below therefore reports inbound and outbound journey counts per yard rather than a per-yard register entry.

Inbound and outbound counts are computed live from Network Rail TRUST data across the 90-day data window, by destination and origin TIPLOC. The Doncaster yard cluster — Belmont Down Yard, Up Decoy and the Wood Yard CE sidings — is registered as an inland terminal for historical reasons; performance reads on the Doncaster Yard register entry. See the aggregate-coverage methodology and the data-window methodology.

Nuclear flask logistics

Nuclear flask movements between Sellafield, Heysham, Hartlepool, Hinkley, Hunterston, Torness, and Wylfa are run principally by Direct Rail Services. Per-site figures are withheld until a security disclosure review with the operator and the Office for Nuclear Regulation concludes. Figures are available under commercial licence on the terms set out on the licensing page. See the aggregate-coverage methodology.

Defence logistics

Ministry of Defence freight terminals at Bicester, Marchwood, Catterick, and Kineton are reported at category level rather than per terminal because the MoD requires that the volume and timing of individual military rail moves are not made public. See the aggregate-coverage methodology.

Major-infrastructure flows

HS2 construction spoil and aggregates move through Network Rail yards — notably Wembley and Acton — without project-specific TIPLOCs. HS2 traffic is therefore visible only through the operator and corridor registers, not as a per-project line. The 90-day data window observes essentially no rail movements to Sizewell C or Hinkley Point C. A project-level attribution model keyed on train UID is under consideration for a later edition. See the aggregate-coverage methodology.

Coverage

The eight register entries above were selected as the largest single-site rail-served end consumers in the live TRUST data window. Further sites — additional power stations, smaller steel terminals, and the rest of the cement and aggregates network — are added as each clears the data-quality and review gates documented in the league-table methodology.