AUSTRIA: Rail Cargo Group reports a significant increase in the amount of waste being moved by rail following the introduction of legislation earlier this year.
Amendments to the Waste Management Act (Abfallwirtschaftsgesetz) aimed at climate protection require that waste loads weighing more than 10 tonnes must be transported by rail if they are moving over a distance greater than 300 km.
RCG had already developed a variety of logistics concepts in collaboration with new and existing customers, which it says are proving both operationally and economically successful. These include the use of modular InnoWagons with bespoke load carriers mounted on a standard multi-purpose flat wagon.
Since the AWG came into force, RCG has signed contracts covering the movement of around 200 000 tonnes/year of waste that would otherwise have been transported by road, equivalent to more than 11 400 lorry loads at an average of 17·5 tonnes.
Working with waste disposal specialist Böhler Abfall, RCG has won a contract from the Vorarlberg Environmental Association for the movement of up to 12 000 tonnes of sewage sludge to Niederösterreich every year. Building on an existing contract with Linz AG covering 78 000 tonnes per year, RCG has is carrying an additional 7 500 tonnes of municipal waste from Graz to Linz.
The AWG also applies to international and transit traffic. Italian company DIFE has contracted RCG to transport 5 000 tonnes of municipal waste per year through Austria, en route from Italy to the Netherlands for ‘thermal recycling’.
To accommodate the increased volumes of waste traffic and streamline road-rail transfers, ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG is investing an additional €4m per year to modernise and expand its loading terminals and private sidings.
