DIRECT Rail Services has been named Business of the Year by The Rail Freight Group.

The coveted award was presented to managing director Debbie Francis and her team at a dinner yesterday.

The Business of the Year Award is presented to the company that the judges consider to be the overall best-performing business in the rail freight sector.

Judges said DRS was a company that had shown excellence in several key areas over 2018 and had “demonstrated a commitment to design and implement exactly the right services for each customer, as well as introducing a very progressive staff development structure.”

This included giving office-based staff the chance to start a new career as train drivers.

DRS has continued to roll out the Class-88 locomotive, the first genuinely bi-modal locomotive in the UK, and judges added that DRS had continually risen to the challenges of meeting unexpected customer demand, “designing innovative solutions and overcoming a wide range of challenges from storms to rail capacity restrictions.”

They said: “Mrs Francis is at the forefront of championing the cause of rail freight in the wider business community and the role of women within the rail industry itself. The company shows an outstanding commitment to its customers, employees and the wider community.”

The award was presented by the awards’ sponsors and presenters on the night John Smith, MD of GB Railfreight, and Simon Coppen, of Burges Salmon.

Maggie Simpson, RFG executive director, said: "It’s wonderful to see so much success, collaboration and optimism."