ACTIVITY
Train Manager
Sponsor: GB Railfreight
Key Stage(s): KS2, KS3, KS4
Subject(s): Careers Education, Cross-curricular, English, Enterprise Education, Geography, Literacy, Maths, Numeracy, Problem Solving
Objectives: To understand idea of planning and costing the movement of rail freight
To develop understanding of what multimodal transport is
To apply use of number and maps
To experience working in a small team
Duration: 30-90 minutes depending on quality of discussion.
In brief: A numeracy exercise researching the advantages and costs of moving freight by rail.
A linked Felixstowe video and/or the supplied images are useful to set the scene.
The class must imagine they work for GB Railfreight and their job is to work out the price GB Railfreight should charge customers to move their freight by train from the port of Felixstowe to different parts of the UK.
Four customers wish to move:
a) 57 boxes of white goods (such as washing machines and fridges) urgently needed in Manchester.
b) 66 boxes of toys required as soon as possible in Birmingham.
c) 70 boxes of clothing required to be delivered to Sheffield in South Yorkshire.
d) 70 boxes of building materials needed in Leeds in West Yorkshire.
Learners must work out for each customer:-
a) how many wagons the train needs to have
b) the customer’s destination on the map.
c) the distance in miles and also in kilometres.
d) How long the train will take to arrive at the destination.
e) The price to be charged to make a reasonable profit.