Every so often, someone brings it up: putting freight on passenger trains. But rarely do you hear companies putting that into practice. However, Kazakhstan Railways subsidiary KTZ Express is doing it. Its scope is modest for now, but it may start doing it internationally too.
KTZ Express now carries oversized freight in postal and luggage wagons for passenger trains. The specialised wagons have no equivalent in CIS countries, the rail operator says.
The move to put freight on passenger trains is a response to the rapid growth of e-commerce in Kazakhstan, KTZ Express explains. It first sent a batch of goods on a passenger route from Almaty to Astana, reaching its destination in a day.
For now, the Almaty – Astana route is the only one where the company is transporting freight on passenger trains. Nevertheless, there are plans to expand the service domestically as well as internationally “in the near future”.
Dutch study
In 2024, the Dutch Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV conducted a study into a similar business model in the Netherlands. The researchers envisioned a future in which freight from different shippers is transported together on the same train via so-called “cargo pods”.
The study was met with surprise, to say the least, from the Dutch rail freight sector. They maintained that such plans are unrealistic.