A Rotterdam court has granted rail freight operator and shunting company Rotterdam Rail Feeding a provisional suspension of payments. The cause of the financial problems is not yet known. Within two to four months, it will become clear whether the suspension of payments is definitive. A creditors’ meeting is scheduled for 9 February 2027.
RRF is by no means a small local shunting company. The company provides shortline and last-mile services, terminal shunting and feeder services in the Port of Rotterdam. It also runs cross-border services in the Netherlands and Germany. The company says it is active on three TEN-T corridors.
However, the question remains why RRF applied for a suspension of payments. No public reports are available yet. RRF is part of the large international infrastructure investor Brookfield. RailFreight.com has reached out to RRF for comment.
A worrying sign for the industry
Hans-Willem Vroon, who is the director of rail freight association RailGood, was struck by the news. “This is very worrying”, he said. “RRF is not bankrupt yet, but the fact that such an important commercial rail freight operator, which was one of the first new entrants in Rotterdam and the Netherlands, no less, has ended up in this financial situation is deeply worrying and very bad for healthy competition in rail freight.”
Eleven years ago, RRF was one of RailGood’s launching companies. “RRF made an indispensable contribution to competitive rail freight in the Netherlands, and to RailGood as well”, said Vroon, who clearly takes the matter to heart. “For years, we have been warning that commercial operators would inevitably run into trouble because of the absurdly high infrastructure charges on the Dutch network, the absurdly high costs of ERTMS implementation, the enormous costs of disruption that operators have to absorb themselves due to the ongoing problems with the rail infrastructure, and the costs of massive overregulation.”
The fact that RRF has run into trouble could have major consequences. “Shareholders and investors have little to no appetite left to really invest in Dutch rail freight operators”, Vroon said. “There is more misery to come. Nobody is taking action. Traction operators are being squeezed like lemons. Their financial reserves are empty. If there is no shareholder or investor behind such a company willing to prop up its cash flow during this very deep rail freight depression, this is the result. It is all very, very worrying.”
State monopoly
Vroon sincerely hopes that RRF can make a fresh start. “If that does not work out, the entire rail sector will suffer. A neutral feeding and shunting company is essentially indispensable in the mainport of Rotterdam.” Vroon does not understand why rail freight in the Netherlands is being left to fend for itself. “Public transport in our country is subsidised on all sides and given preferential treatment, with priority in the capacity allocation rules and extreme subsidies for ERTMS. Meanwhile, freight operators are left to sort everything out on their own.”
This article was originally published by our sister publication SpoorPro.nl.