SPAIN: The country’s first rolling motorway service for moving lorry semitrailers by rail was formally launched on July 22 following several weeks of tests.
The daily service links València and Madrid over 1 668 mm gauge tracks. It is hoped that it could be extended to Encontramento in Portugal by the end of next year.
The trains are run by logistics groups TransItalia and Tramesa, which have invested in a fleet of 55 Tatravagónka T4000 pocket wagons able to carry a pair of craneable semitrailers. Of these, 35 are owned outright and 20 are leased from Wascosa.
Medway is providing haulage using Stadler Series 256 Euro6000 multi-system locomotives.
The service has been introduced following significant investment at the port of València, where gantry cranes have been erected on the eastern quay at a cost of €3·7m, and at the Abroñigal terminal in Madrid. Work is in hand to redevelop and enhance the Vicávaro marshalling yard in the capital, which infrastructure manager ADIF expects to become the long-term hub for a wider network of intermodal services.
