Innovative Intermodal Urban Freight Transport Solution

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Urban supply chains suffer from, and are a significant contributor to, road congestion. Theloss of business efficiency, increase in air pollution, damage to the road network etc. areestimated to cost the UK economy £32bn/year. The Mole Urban Concept is aimed at reducingthe level of road freight within urban areas by linking two proven congestion impact reductionmethods (edge of city Consolidation Centres and inner city based electric vans) with pipelinescarrying capsules, each capable of carrying two full sized pallets. Whilst the benefits offreight pipelines are readily appreciated, the capital cost and development timescales areconsidered major viability concerns.This project aims to establish the business case for a specific urban location and a realistictimetable for development. It builds on previous studies by Mole Solutions (MSL) for thetransport of bulk products: 1) DEFRA funded/DfT managed study to assess the feasibility offreight pipelines to transport aggregates, 2) a Smart Proof of Concept Grant and 3) aDevelopment of Prototype Grant; output being an operational demonstrator in 2014. Thesehave shown that individual technologies are available, the innovation comes from combiningthese into a very cost effective, socially acceptable and low environmental impact freightsolution.The demonstrator attracted interest from the public sector; the potential for freight pipelineswithin cities. Northampton Councils, LEP and University are all keen to understand thefeasibility of modifying the bulk concept to a pallet carrying system for Northampton. Thiswould provide a model for urban applications globally.This project will: a) establish technology changes required from the bulk demonstratorsystem, b) determine limits of economic viability (capital and operating costs, capacityutilisation), c) estimate the socio-environmental impact for different scenarios, d) identify‘barriers to change’ & e) prepare a realistic development programme.