and
66847 in August 2012 Colas Rail was founded as Seco Rail by French railway engineering company SECO (Société d'Études et de Construction d'Outillage). During the twentieth century, it was mostly concentrated on activities such as track maintenance, line construction, and urban transport services. During 2000, SECO was acquired by the road construction company
Colas Group. In January 2008, Colas Group also acquired the Plant division of
Carillion Rail, comprising 12 tampers, three regulators, one locomotive, one 125T Kirow Crane, 16 switch-handling units (Pem/Lem), and the
freehold of the Mill Lane Plant Depot in
Rugby, making the company the owner of the largest fleet of modern on-track plant in the UK. Accordingly, the company decided to reorganise its rail operations, during which Seco Rail was merged with both Carillion Rail and another recently-purchased rail subsidiary, AMEC-Spie; the new entity operated under the Colas Rail brand. in June 2013 During late 2008, Colas Rail commenced operating steel trains from
Immingham to
Washwood Heath, hauled by
Class 56 locomotives hired from
Hanson Traction. In mid-2009, on behalf of a separate customer, it commenced a further steel flow from
Burton upon Trent to
Dollands Moor, which was hauling by the company's own Class 47s. In late 2009, Colas leased four
Class 66 (66 841–66 844) diesel locomotives that had last been used by the collapsed operator
Advenza Freight. These were joined by 66 845 which had last been used by
Direct Rail Services. As a consequence of their owners concluding a deal to lease all five locomotives to the British freight operator
GB Railfreight, Colas purchased five replacement locomotives (66 846–66 850, formerly 66 573- 66 577) that had previously been operated by
Freightliner. This rolling stock rearrangement coincided with Colas' entering of the UK coal haulage market during the summer of 2011. in August 2019 During December 2011, Colas launched a new service on behalf of Kronospan, moving timber from
Gloucester to
Newton Abbot, typically hauled by its Class 66 fleet. In late 2012, a single
Class 86 electric locomotive (86 701) was briefly operated by the company on a trial service on the
West Coast Main Line, hauling former
First Great Western Motorail wagons; two years later, a similar trial service was conducted using a Class 60 locomotive instead. During April 2012, Colas purchased four Class 56 locomotives. By January 2014, the company had a total of 11 members of the type in its inventory. During May 2012, it also purchased the
Pullman Rail rolling stock maintenance business based in
Cardiff. In April 2013, Colas formed a
joint venture with the British transport conglomerate
Go-Ahead Group to bid for the concession to operate the
Docklands Light Railway franchise, and was successfully short-listed during the competitive bidding process. However, during August 2013, it was announced that the bid had been withdrawn. in June 2019 In November 2013, Colas placed an order for ten
Class 70 diesel locomotives with the American railway manufacturer
GE Transportation. Around the same time, it separately purchased four
Class 37 locomotives formerly in preservation to return them to mainline operations. During 2014, Colas Rail purchased ten
Class 60 locomotives from
DB Schenker, the deal included an option to purchase a further ten at a later date. In mid-2015, it made preparations to commence operating infrastructure trains on behalf of Network Rail; as a part of these preparations, a further four Class 37s were purchased by Colas to haul them. By late 2016, Colas Rail was amongst the five largest contractors to Network Rail, and had 1,500 staff in the UK alone. During the 2010s, Colas Rail was active as the primary contractor for the
Al Boraq Moroccan high speed rail line, being responsible for the delivery of the railway infrastructure. It was also one of several contractors that were engaged in major improvement works at
London Waterloo station during the mid-to-late 2010s. The company has also been involved in delivering enhancements to the
West Midlands Metro. In 2018, Colas Rail publicly called for Network Rail to provide greater certainty on future rail freight paths, stating that investment in new services, such as rail-based parcel traffic, was being jeopardised by a lack of safeguards on capacity. During August 2021, Colas announced the sale of its Pullman Rail engineering operation to the government-owned not-for-profit organisation
Transport for Wales. ==Fleet details==