The Dutch infrastructure ministry has announced a plan to invest 30 million euros in single wagonload (SWL) operations at the Kijfhoek rail yard, close to Rotterdam. The investment should help suppress costs, lead to reliable and more sustainable freight flows and support ports and industries.
Over 150 Dutch companies in the chemical, paper and steel industries are dependent on SWL operations at Kijfhoek, according to infrastructure state secretary Thierry Aartsen.
“Kijfhoek plays a crucial role in the distribution of goods from the ports to industrial zones in the Netherlands and Europe”, Aartsen stated. “With this impulse, we’re making rail freight safer, more efficient and more attractive for companies.”
The 30 million euros are drawn from a 79 million euro fund to improve freight transportation in the Netherlands by inducing a modal shift from the road to inland waterways and the railways. In other words, the ministry has decided to use nearly 40% of those funds to help SWL.
Taking traction away from DB Cargo
In the Dutch policy plan “Vision of the Future for Rail Freight 2050”, the government also highlights that the current format of the gravity shunting yard, in which DB Cargo provides locomotive traction, no longer matches the size and projected size of SWL traffic. It wants to change the operating model with a neutral service offering at the site. That means that infrastructure manager ProRail will take over DB Cargo’s shunting locomotives and that the service offering will periodically be put to the market. That should also improve the accessibility of shunting at Kijfhoek for other companies that offer SWL services.
The investment in SWL could be seen as a remarkable decision. Whereas European leaders in SWL traffic Germany and Switzerland seem to be killing it off, the Netherlands is going the other way by giving it a helping hand. The Dutch rail freight association RailGood has responded negatively to the 30 million euro investment, and points to the situation in Germany.
The investment hurts intermodal and block trains
“A waste of Dutch tax payer money”, director Hans-Willem Vroon says on LinkedIn. “Wrong political choice. […] First, the German government injects billions of euros into its own loss-making state company for many years. Then, the European Commission puts an end to it towards 2029, which has hindered a healthy functioning of the market on the railways for years.”
The bottom line, according to RailGood, is that only a few large industries with foreign shareholders will be able to enjoy subsidised transport for a couple of years more. “The continuation of single wagonload transport with state support is unhealthy, not goal-oriented and keeps volumes away from transporters of intermodal and block trains.”