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…
Author: Marco Raimondi
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…
New TEN-T: TENtec guidelines are out, timetable is still missing
One of the aims of the new TEN-T Regulation is to harmonise communication between EU Member States and European institutions. To do this, the TENtec system is being developed. When fully functional, the system is expected to speed up the exchange of information and accelerate the compiling of reports and maps of the corridors. However,…
Italian waste goes on the rail to Austria to be transformed into fuel
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, says an ancient proverb. This still seems to be applicable when it comes to Italian waste, some of which will be turned into alternative fuels in Austria. Rail Cargo Group (RCG) launched a multimodal service to transport waste from the Maddaloni-Marcianise terminal, near Naples, to Combi Cargo Terminal…
New TEN-T: These are the new guidelines for gauge migration
The new TEN-T Regulation stresses that the difference in gauges in the EU “severely hampers the interoperability of the railway networks across the Union and even impacts the competitiveness of those isolated railway networks”. The document sets out the conditions for the gauge migration in Member States with a different gauge than 1435 mm. Member…