The Polish Office of Rail Transport (UTK) has submitted a request for an urgent JNS procedure on Innofreight’s 13ft MonTainer XXM containers with gravity-based HardTop covers. In April 2025, a cover of one of these containers detached, after which it severely damaged a passenger train that passed on the same tracks.
The request for an urgent procedure from UTK follows an earlier recommendation to suspend the use of the involved Innofreight containers. UTK specified that the Polish infrastructure manager PKP PLK had indeed banned the containers from its network. This measure would stay in place until “a mechanical method of closing and securing the HardTop cover is developed”.
On 9 April 2025, a train running with empty 13ft MonTainer XXM with gravity-based HardTop covers had one of said covers fall on the tracks. These covers are not fixed, but held in place by their weight. It is possible that the cover detached from the container due to the weather conditions, since 9 April 2025 was a windy day in Poland.
A passenger train ran into the cover on the tracks. This caused significant damage to the rolling stock and railway infrastructure.