Thamesport
Encyclopedia
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
seaport on the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
, serving the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. It is on the Isle of Grain
Isle of Grain
The Isle of Grain, in the north of Kent, England, is the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula. No longer an island, the Isle is almost all marshland and the Grain Marshes are an important habitat for birdlife...
, in the Medway
Medway
Medway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council and part of Kent County Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County...
unitary authority, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It is sited on the former Port Victoria.
History
In 1953, the Anglo-Persian Oil CompanyAnglo-Persian Oil Company
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was founded in 1908 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. It was the first company to extract petroleum from the Middle East...
(later British Petroleum) developed a large oil refinery, Kent Oil Refinery, in the south of the Isle of Grain
Isle of Grain
The Isle of Grain, in the north of Kent, England, is the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula. No longer an island, the Isle is almost all marshland and the Grain Marshes are an important habitat for birdlife...
. A fuel depot with an attached port had existed there since 1928. But from 1953, over ten million tons of crude oil were processed annually on the 4 km2 site. This led to the establishment of the oil-fired power station at Grain
Grain Power Station
Grain Power Station is an oil-fired and CCGT power station in Kent, England with operational capacity of 1,320MW owned by E.ON UK.-History:Grain was built on a site for the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board. It was built by the Cleveland Bridge Company beginning in 1975. It opened...
and dual-fuel capable Kingsnorth
Kingsnorth power station
Kingsnorth is a dual-fired coal and oil power station on the Hoo Peninsula at Medway in Kent, South East England. The four-unit station is owned and operated by energy firm E.ON UK, and has a generating capacity of 1,940 megawatts. It is capable of operating on either coal or oil though in practice...
. In practice, Kingsnorth uses coal.
The refinery was closed on 27 August 1982, and work was transferred to other BP locations. The plant was taken over by British Gas plc
British Gas plc
British Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
(at that time still nationalised), which used a small part of the site for the storage of liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas that has been converted temporarily to liquid form for ease of storage or transport....
. Three quarters of the site remained unused.
In 1987 British Gas submitted plans to use 0.87 km2 of the disused refinery site as a Container port. Building began in 1989. The risk capital financing of the £150 million project, named Thamesport, took place through the operating company Thames Estuary Terminals Ltd., later Thamesport Ltd. By March 1990 the enterprise had a capacity of approximately 360,000 TEU
Twenty-foot equivalent unit
The twenty-foot equivalent unit is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals...
per year.
Land access to Thamesport was at first exclusively by road. In time the railway line
Hundred of Hoo Railway
The Hundred of Hoo Railway is a railway line in Kent, England, following the North Kent Line from Gravesend before diverging at Hoo Junction near Shorne Marshes and continuing in an easterly direction across the Hoo Peninsula, passing near the villages of Cooling, High Halstow, Cliffe and Stoke...
from Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
to the Isle of Grain was to be used. A goods station with track and transshipment facilities was developed at Thamesport. A government subsidy of £1.8 million was received. It became operational in January 1992.
By the first half of 1990, the repayment of c. £100 million risk capital put the operator company Thamesport Ltd. into administration
Administration (insolvency)
As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – an alternative to liquidation – is often known as going...
. The investment group Rutland Partners LLP acquired 95% of MTS holdings Ltd - the parent company of Thamesport Ltd - in December 1995 for £25 million and took over debts of £27 million. With the new owner, the port was further developed. The capacity increased to approximately 635,000 TEU per year. In 1997, with a turnover of £27.3 million, a profit (before tax)of approximately £2.5 million was made.
In February 1998 Rutland Partners LLP sold their interest in MTS holdings Ltd and small navigation company "Maritime Haulage" for £112 million to the Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa Limited or HWL of Hong Kong is a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL is an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which includes the world's biggest port and telecommunication operations in 14...
Group. Hutchison Whampoa also operates two other important ports on the British east coast, Felixstowe
Felixstowe
Felixstowe is a seaside town on the North Sea coast of Suffolk, England. The town gives its name to the nearby Port of Felixstowe, which is the largest container port in the United Kingdom and is owned by Hutchinson Ports UK...
and Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
.
In 2001 Thamesport was developed into a deep-water port. The harbour basin was dredged to a depth of at least 15.5 metres, and the approach to a minimum depth of 12.5 metres, at a cost of £3.5 million. In June 2008, its name was changed to London Thamesport.
Facilities
The heart of Thamesport is a 655 metre-long deep water dock. It is served by seven crane tracks, and can service vessels with draughts of 14.5m. The temporary storage facility has capacity for 26,000 TEUTwenty-foot equivalent unit
The twenty-foot equivalent unit is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals...
; that is 13,000 standard containers
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
. This is fully automatic; 19 cranes automatically move the containers. 635,000 TEU can be processed annually. In the long-term the capacity could be doubled.
Traffic
Thamesport is connected to national road network by the A228A228 road
The A228 road is an important transport artery in Kent, England. It begins at the Isle of Grain and runs in a south-westerly direction to connect eventually with the A21 trunk road at Pembury. It serves existing communities and new and proposed housing developments and commercial enterprises...
. This leads Stoke and Hoo to Strood, where it feeds into A2
A2 road (Great Britain)
The A2 is a major road in southern England, connecting London with the English Channel port of Dover in Kent. This route has always been of importance as a connection between the British capital of London and sea trade routes to Continental Europe...
towards London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and the M2 motorway over the Medway Viaducts to Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
where it rejoins the A2 which leads to Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
.
The port also benefits from a connection to the single-tracked, standard gauge, freight Hundred of Hoo Railway
Hundred of Hoo Railway
The Hundred of Hoo Railway is a railway line in Kent, England, following the North Kent Line from Gravesend before diverging at Hoo Junction near Shorne Marshes and continuing in an easterly direction across the Hoo Peninsula, passing near the villages of Cooling, High Halstow, Cliffe and Stoke...
.
Three British rail freight companies - English, Welsh & Scottish Railway, Fastline Freight and Freightliner
Freightliner (UK)
Freightliner Group Limited is a rail freight and logistics company, founded in 1995 and now operating in the United Kingdom, Poland, and Australia. It is the second largest rail freight operator in the UK, after DB Schenker Rail .- History :...
- currently have container services to Thamesport. In the first half of 2005 approximately 25% of traffic to and from Thamesport used the rail link.