Amazon is giving another go at incorporating high-speed rail into its logistics operations. This time, the initiative entails daily 2,000 parcels loaded onto the TGV service between Paris and Lyon, in France. This way, freight can cover the distance between the two cities in less than two and a half hours rather than the eight it takes by truck.
Other than Amazon, the partnership involves the French state-owned rail freight group Rail Logistics Europe (RLE), and follows a test run throughout last year. The parcels will be stored “dedicated, enclosed spaces in TGV train holds, reserved exclusively for parcel transport”. The main operations are assigned to the newly-established operator Hexafret and will operate six days a week.
Amazon has been increasing the presence of rail freight in France. The American company has been using the Le BoulouBettembourg and Le Boulou-Calais rolling highway services operated by VIIA, another member of RLE. “The company has thus doubled the share of rail in its transport in France since 2022, representing more than 25% of Amazon’s inter-site stock movements in France by 2024”, Amazon said in a press release.
Amazon and the failed high-speed experiment in Italy
The e-commerce hegemon claimed that this initiative is a “first for Amazon’s European operations: parcel transport by TGV”. Despite being technically true, it is not the first time the company tries to put freight on high-speed trains in Europe. Between 2018 and 2022, a high-speed train converted to carry freight ran between the Maddaloni terminal near Naples to Bologna, in Italy.
The service, called Mercitalia Fast, was launched with the Italian state-owned logistics group FS. Amazon was the sole customer of this service and was discontinued in November 2022. Initially, FS said it would have been a temporary interruption, but now the converted train went to the scrapyard and the transshipment facility at the Maddaloni terminal has been demolished.
