Sizewell C’s first commercial freight train rolls in on the new Green Rail Route.

Sizewell C has taken its first commercial freight train into the Temporary Construction Area (TCA) via the new Green Rail Route (GRR), the project’s own newsroom said in a piece published 9 September 2026. BBC News Suffolk’s Ben Parker, dated 10 September, puts arrival at 01:30 BST on Tuesday and confirms the train brought the equivalent of about 50 HGVs’ worth of construction material. Energy Live News recirculated the milestone on 15 September.

The mechanism is a purpose-built rail spur. The Green Rail Route stretches 2.8 kilometres (1.7 miles) from the upgraded Sizewell branch line to the TCA, Sizewell C’s fact box says. The first freight train was around 270 metres long, comprised box wagons hauled by a Class 66 locomotive, and carried more than 1,000 tonnes of construction materials from Tunstead Quarry near Buxton, Derbyshire. By bringing large volumes overnight and bypassing Leiston entirely, each freight train prevents the equivalent of around 50 HGVs from travelling on local roads, the project says.

Schedule and scale: initially two overnight services will deliver construction aggregates; at peak capacity up to four freight trains a day will run. Between now and Christmas alone, around 100,000 tonnes of material are to be delivered by rail — about 5,000 HGV-journey equivalents, on Sizewell C’s arithmetic. For the next few weeks, trains make a brief stop at Saxmundham before continuing to site; after Network Rail upgrades to the East Suffolk Line later this year, trains are to continue directly without that stop.

Named actors: Damian Leydon, Site Delivery Director of Sizewell C, called the first commercial freight train a major milestone and tied it to delivering 60% of materials by rail and sea; Enyi Oji, senior sponsor for Network Rail, credited industry collaboration; Tom Emanuel, project lead for the Sizewell C rail scheme at Balfour Beatty, called building a brand-new railway a rare UK undertaking; Cllr Tom Daly, East Suffolk’s cabinet member for energy and climate change, framed rail deliveries as reducing lorries and associated carbon footprint. Much of the rail construction work was carried out by Balfour Beatty, Sizewell C says. Soft FLAG on project cost: BBC notes Sizewell C is expected to cost £38 billion — BBC figure, not independently verified in this pack.

Wider rail programme context from the Sizewell C release: renewing 4.5 miles of track, replacing jointed rail with continuously welded rail to reduce noise, upgrading level crossings and installing a new signalling system, plus support for East Suffolk Line improvements between Ipswich and Lowestoft. The Sizewell branch line has had no daily passenger services since 1966, the project notes. Once construction is complete, both the Green Rail Route and the Ancillary Construction Area railhead line are to be returned to their original condition.

Opposition colour, attributed: Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C told the BBC that while reducing HGVs is positive for anyone on local roads, overnight freight trains are “bad news for homes and tourism businesses adjacent to the railway line.” Soft FLAG: the first-train event itself dates to the early hours of Tuesday 8 or 9 September depending on calendar reading of “Tuesday” against the 9–10 September publications; Energy Live News’s 15 September item is a later recirculation, not a new COD.

What to watch without mood: East Suffolk Line upgrade completion that drops the Saxmundham stop; count of trains per night as the schedule phases up toward four a day; cumulative tonnes published against the 100,000-tonne-to-Christmas target.

Floor: First commercial GRR freight — Class 66, >1,000 t from Tunstead, ~50 HGV equivalents per train; two overnight services now, up to four at peak; 60% materials by rail/sea.