Ukrainian Railways (UZ) and the Lithuanian railway holding LTG Group agreed to develop a new freight service between Kyiv and Klaipėda. “The first test runs of the intermodal cargo transportation route are planned for this year”, LTG added. The initiative is still in its early stages, as a Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed by…
Author: Marco Raimondi
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway to open for traffic in two weeks
Freight trains will start running along the newly renovated Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway on 20 May 2024. The plan is to turn the line into the main artery of the Middle Corridor and further boost Eurasian rail freight transport, according to Roshvan Rustamov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways (ADY). Rustamov mentioned that the works on the Georgian…
CargoBeamer wants to build a terminal near German-Czech border
CargoBeamer, a German company specialised in the rail transport of non-cranable semi-trailers recently signed a Letter of Intent to launch the construction of a new terminal in Saxony, the German region bordering with Czechia. It needs to be mentioned that this project is still in its early stages, but there are various reasons behind it,…
Hannibal to launch new Italy-Hungary-Romania connection
Hannibal, the multimodal subsidiary of Contship, will launch a new rail freight service connecting Milan to Budapest and Curtici. The company expects to commence operations by the end of this year. The service will connect the Rail Hub Melzo, east of Milan, with the BILK terminal in Budapest and the Arad terminal in Curtici. The…
Italian region near Slovenia shares environmental concerns on Divača-Koper project
The Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG), which borders Slovenia, asked for more details concerning the environmental impact of the doubling of the Divača-Koper line. “The Region considers that technical investigations into the documentation received from Slovenia are necessary”, the region claimed. FVG is asking for more detailed information to be included in the…
Raising awareness about digital sustainability in rail
The European Union aims to make the transport sector and supply chain more eco-friendly, typically focusing on vehicle emissions and infrastructure upgrades. Yet, a crucial aspect often overlooked is digital pollution. At the RailFreight Summit ’24, Willem Jan Groenewoud, CEO of Ab Ovo, shed light on this issue and proposed solutions. Groenewoud created a sense…
Germany, Austria and Switzerland ask for EU-wide DAC commitment
The governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland said that their efforts in the context of deploying Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) “are necessary, but not sufficient”. They are asking for the creation of an EU-wide funding mechanism, financial commitment from all Member States and strong foundations from the sector. Germany, Austria and Switzerland are thus asking…
DB completes six-track-bundle upgrade in Basel
The line between Basel and Karlsruhe is one of the main bottlenecks for rail freight along the Rhine-Alpine Corridor. Now, some improvements are expected as the track expansion at the Basel-Weil am Rhein was commissioned by Deutsche Bahn (DB) on 29 April 2024. In total, a bundle of six new tracks was built parallel to…
Another French union voices concerns over discontinuation of Fret SNCF
The decision of the French government to restructure the national rail freight operator Fret SNCF to avoid European sanctions keeps sparking contrary reactions. The National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (UNSA) recently highlighted how this initiative will have “nefarious effects” on France as a whole. The UNSA, which claims to have over 200,000 members, is…
‘Spain is light years away from reaching EU rail freight goals’
The market share of rail freight in Spain is currently at around 4 per cent. By 2030, the number should more than double and reach 10 per cent, as dictated by the European Union. However, these goals are still “light years away”, as the Spanish Ministry of Transport Oscar Puente claimed. The main issue seems…