EWS said it has secured a contract of undisclosed value from the Finnish group to run two trains a week of paper between Ayrshire, Scotland and a new freight terminal in Barking, Essex.

The paper is destined for Daily Mail & General Trust PLC division Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard and London Metro.

The new service, which started this month, replaces a previous road operation and will remove thousands of lorry movements a year from the road network, EWS said.

EWS, which is part-owned by Canadian National Railways Co, opened the Barking terminal last month in partnership with logistics group Howard Tenens.