EUROPE: CargoBeamer has launched its first service dedicated to one client, carrying unaccompanied lorry semi-trailers, swap bodies and containers by rail between Köln in Germany and Sète near Montpellier in southern France.
The two trains per week in each direction are each able to carry 38 trailers on T3000 wagons. The port of Sète offers connections with Mediterranean ferry services to and from Yalova in Turkey.
Danish shipping company DFDS is the sole customer and allocates slots on the trains. CargoBeamer is responsible for planning and dispatching, working with intermodal service provider PrimeRail, while Europorte provides traction.
CargoBeamer said the service offered CO2 emissions per semi-trailer that are 85% lower than by road. The unaccompanied transport also helps to relieve the ‘rapidly increasing shortage of truck drivers’ in Europe.
‘By establishing this service, which is specially tailored to the requirements of DFDS, we can once again expand our portfolio and send a strong signal to the market about how flexible our rail services can be’, said CargoBeamer Chief Operating Officer Boris Timm on March 24. ‘By having Europorte on board as a partner, we are now co-operating with three of the largest traction companies in the French market. Together, we are continuously working to create new and environmentally-friendly transport lanes to make rail one of most important transport modes of the future.’
