{"id":252150,"date":"2025-07-16T16:47:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T06:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=64168"},"modified":"2025-07-16T16:47:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T06:47:47","slug":"france-germany-rail-highway-service-to-be-launched-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=252150","title":{"rendered":"France-Germany rail highway service to be launched in September"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new rail highway service between Perpignan, in southern France, and Cologne, in western Germany, will commence in September. An exact date for the start of operations has not yet been provided, but DB Cargo underlined that there will be up to four weekly round trips.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>The initiative, named Medex, is led by Transfesa Logistics, the Spanish subsidiary of DB Cargo. The company is the same that launched the rail highway service between Valencia and Madrid one year ago. Similarly to that service, the one connecting France and Germany will focus on rail transport services for the automotive sector. Each train will be able to move 36 loading units, DB Cargo specified on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

An emerging concept<\/h2>\n

Rail highway services are becoming more and more popular in Europe, especially in Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. This is a type of unaccompanied combined transport, where the semi-trailers (without the tractor unit) are loaded onto special rail wagons and transported on long distances. Among the companies developing these special wagons there are Modalohr, Helrom, CargoBeamer and VTG.<\/p>\n

In Spain, other than the already running Madrid-Valencia, another similar initiative will connect the port of Algeciras to Zaragoza starting at the end of 2026. In France, a new route linking Bayonne to Cherbourg was introduced a couple of months ago. Moreover, another rail highway service hit the ground between Domodossola (Italy) and Stuttgart (Germany).<\/p>\n

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Rail highway vs rolling highways<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rail highway<\/strong> services are not to be confused with the so-called rolling highways<\/strong>, which entail the rail transport of whole trucks, including the tractor unit and the driver. The two main rolling highway services used to connect Italy to France and Germany. The Italy\u2013France one, also known as AFA, was discontinued with the landslide which caused the closure of the Frejus Railway in August 2023 and has still not been reinstated. The Italy\u2013Germany one will also stop existing at the end of 2025 due to too many restrictions on the network.<\/p>\n