Corridor 1 — Ashport to Merrow Junction
The shortest and busiest thing we run: a 177 km straight line from the west-coast deep-sea berths to the middle of the network, four times a day.
| # | Leg | Mode | Distance | Circuity | Running |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Receipt, plan and lift at Ashport Deepwater | 3h 00m | |||
| 1 | Ashport Deepwater → Merrow Junction | Rail | 216 km | 1.22 | 3h 29m |
| — | Discharge and release at Merrow Junction | 2h 00m | |||
Of that total, 0h 00m is spent standing still under a crane rather than moving — 0% of the door-to-door clock. Cutting a lane's transit almost never means running faster; it means taking a lift out of it.
Corridor 1 is not a glamorous service. It is 177 km as the crow flies, 216 km as the track actually runs, and it carries more boxes than any other lane on the network because almost everything arriving at Ashport begins its inland journey on it.
Four departures a day means the practical wait for a slot is under three hours in either direction, which changes what the service is for. Corridor 1 is used less as a booked movement and more as a conveyor: a box goes on the next one.
Why it runs at four a day and not two
Because of what happens to a corridor as you load it. Rail capacity does not degrade gracefully — past a certain density, adding one more path costs everybody behind it, and the corridor’s throughput actually falls. Running four shorter consists instead of two long ones keeps the line well under that threshold and keeps the variance on arrival times small enough to publish.
Equipment on this service
All unit types including 45ft. Tank containers accepted with 24 hours notice.