{"id":297018,"date":"2025-10-06T17:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T07:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=66448"},"modified":"2025-10-06T17:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T07:01:22","slug":"combined-transport-in-decline-due-to-political-and-economic-constraints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=297018","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Combined transport in decline due to political and economic constraints\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>German Combined Transport (CT) is approaching the danger zone, according to transport association VDV. After years of success, political and economic constraints are condemning CT to a decline.<\/strong><br \/>\n<span id=\"more-66448\"><\/span>German Combined Transport has been a success story for a long time. It has grown by around 4% for years, according to VDV, and grew from 80 to 124 million tonnes between 2009 and 2022. The success story might now be over: CT has started to revert course. In 2023, it shrunk back to 113 million tonnes.<\/p>\n<p>VDV broadly identifies two underlying reasons for the development: economic and political setbacks. It says that a declining economy in combination with American tariffs is leading to surplus capacity on the road, making it more attractive than other modes of transportation.<\/p>\n<p>Politically speaking, the situation of CT in Germany could be seen as a self-inflicted wound. \u201cThe infrastructural uncertainties on the railway are currently too great and have passed tipping points. Above all, additional costs for diversions from major construction sites and excessively high track access charges are acting as obstacles. They ensure that goods are transported by road instead of rail\u201d, explained VDV Vice President Joachim Berends.<\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 2px solid #0a4e7f; padding: 15px 20px 20px 20px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: #e7f1f8; margin: 20px 0;\">\n<p>Germany is currently executing a <strong>major overhaul<\/strong> of its rail network. Entire sections are being renovated, which will make the rails more reliable in the future, but is causing problems now as trains have to divert along other routes and therefore incur higher costs.<\/p>\n<p>Joachim Berends highlights that in the long term, only a significant modernisation of the rail infrastructure with sufficient capacity will help &#8211; exactly what Germany is hoping to achieve with the overhaul.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2025\/07\/31\/nine-months-of-diversions-hamburg-berlin-line-closes-tomorrow\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DB282461-128x128.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/infrastructure\/2025\/07\/31\/nine-months-of-diversions-hamburg-berlin-line-closes-tomorrow\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">Nine months of diversions: Hamburg-Berlin line closes tomorrow<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Track access charges<\/h2>\n<p>VDV emphasises the need for a fundamental reform of the track access charge system. &#8220;Without competitive track access pricing, rail freight transport is threatened with a decline in market share \u2013 that would be a severe setback in economic policy terms\u201d, Berends says. &#8220;Furthermore, fair compensation for diverted traffic resulting from corridor renovations, a suspension of cancellation fees starting in 2026, and complete relief for rail freight transport from energy levies and taxes are needed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Whereas VDV identifies overcapacity on the road due to an economic decline, some see that European trucking is in fact operating at maximum capacity. Rail could help relieve some of the strain on trucks, but it is not a short-term solution.<\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 2px solid #0a4e7f; padding: 15px 20px 20px 20px; border-radius: 10px; background-color: #e7f1f8; margin: 20px 0;\">\n<p>Whereas VDV identifies overcapacity on the road due to an economic decline, some see that European trucking is in fact operating at <strong>maximum capacity<\/strong>. Rail could help relieve some of the strain on trucks, but it is not a short-term solution.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"readmore\">\n<div class=\"readmore-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/intermodal\/2025\/09\/26\/european-trucking-is-nearly-at-full-capacity-will-intermodal-rail-profit\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Intermodal-Rail-Transport-1-128x128.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"readmore-thumbnail\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"readmore-info\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/intermodal\/2025\/09\/26\/european-trucking-is-nearly-at-full-capacity-will-intermodal-rail-profit\/\" class=\"readmore-title\">European trucking is nearly at full capacity, will (intermodal) rail profit?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>German Combined Transport (CT) is approaching the danger zone, according to transport association VDV. After years of success, political and economic constraints are condemning CT\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,82,65,47,14349],"tags":[12634],"class_list":["post-297018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-combined-transport","category-germany","category-intermodal","category-rail-news","category-vdv","tag-railfreight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297021,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297018\/revisions\/297021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}