The future intermodal facility at the port of Sète, in southern France, should be ready by September 2025. The terminal will be managed by VIIA and should help in the transfer of goods from road to rail at the port.
The last construction phase started a few weeks ago, a little late on the original timetable, which initially envisioned the opening of the terminal by the end of 2023. Once completed, the terminal will allow the expansion of the Sète-Calais rolling highway service, which should reach 40,000 semi-trailers moved by rail compared to the current 12,000.
The facility will be equipped with the Modalohr horizontal transhipment equipment. This, as the director of the port of Sète Olivier Carmes mentioned, will significantly reduce the time needed to move semi-trailers to the railways. “From half a day, the average transhipment time will drop to less than one hour”, Carmes specified. This should incentivise the use of rail for the over 130,000 UTIs moved in the port in 2024.
20 million investment
The creation of a new intermodal hub at the port of Sète will cost roughly 20 million euros. Half of the funds will be provided by VIIA, part of SNCF Group’s subsidiary Rail Logistics Europe. An additional 5,7 million will be made available by the Occitaine region and the remaining 3,7 will come from Port Sud de France, the entity in charge of the port of Sète.