Category: Business

Polish farmers to block all Ukrainian freight transport

Polish farmers will organise new blockades of Ukrainian freight. This time around, they will block all border crossings between Poland and Ukraine, seaports and rail hubs. The intensified blockades are supposed to start on 20 February. Polish farmers are protesting the relaxation of import and transit restrictions on Ukrainian goods by the EU. The lifting […]

EU may break up DB Cargo due to losses

The European Union may break up DB Cargo due to the rail operator’s large losses, which have reached nearly 500 million euros. Company sources reported to Reuters that the EU may consider the figures and subsequent government support to be distorting the market. The Deutsche Bahn subsidiary incurred losses that were twice as high as […]

Hupac’s 2023 performance indicates the struggles of European rail

Multiple challenges, some continuing from previous years and some appearing out of the blue, created a not-so-business-friendly environment for intermodal operator Hupac in 2023. The company saw its traffic and volumes declining across its whole network and has implemented strategic moves to tackle the harsh market conditions. In 2023, Hupac transported approximately 975,000 road consignments, […]

Recovery and stagnation: German rail survey reveals mixed results

The German rail sector fully recovered from the pandemic in 2022. According to an annual German market survey, German rail freight exceeded its pre-pandemic performance levels by 10 per cent. However, performance also stagnated in the second half of the year. According to an annual survey by the Bundesnetzagentur on the performance of the rail […]

DB Cargo main beneficiary of Fret SNCF ‘discontinuity’

Labour unions at Fret SNCF have highlighted that the ‘discontinuity’ of the French state railways’ biggest rail freight subsidiary has played directly into the hands of its biggest rival – DB Cargo France. Under the terms of an agreement between France and the European Commission, in response to suspected illegal state aid to Fret SNCF, […]

Estonian Railways’ losses expected to worsen in the coming years

The losses of Estonian Railways are expected to continue and worsen in the coming years. Earlier, Estonia reported a decline of 43 per cent in freight volumes following sanctions on Russian goods. The loss of freight volumes has led to passenger transportation exceeding freight transportation, according to Estonian Railways’ commercial manager Arthur Raichmann. Whereas 9,5 […]

“It’s up to the sector to provide modal shift incentives,” says LTG Cargo CEO

“We don’t have time to wait – we need to act now”. This is the message of Egle Sime, CEO of the Lithuanian operator LTG Cargo. In her view, it’s not only the EU that needs to take legislative steps and enable the modal shift to rail. The rail freight sector should also take initiatives […]