On October 23 Container Corp of India launched a weekly timetabled Parcel Express Train service between Dadri Inland Container Depot near Delhi and Tondiarpet ICD near Chennai. The Ministry of Railways said the assured transit time of 68 h would enable Concor to attract additional traffic estimated at 350 to 400 TEU/month including automotive parts, electronics and consumer goods.
CFL Multimodal and ferry operator CLdN have launched a service carrying semi-trailers, swap bodies and containers between Zeebrugge and Lyon. The initial service of three weekly round trips with a 22 h transit time is to be increased to six services a week during 2017, and a stop in Bettembourg added to provide connections for Le Boulou on the France-Spain border and Trieste for shipping links to Turkey.
On October 19 the government of Montenegro launched a tender for the sale of a 51% stake in national freight operator Montecargo. The deadline for bids is December 8.
A new changeover point between 15 kV 16·7 Hz and 25 kV 50 Hz electrification systems located between Emmerich in Germany and Zevenaar in the Netherlands went live on October 20, eliminating the need for freight trains to or from the Betuwe Route to negotiate a short section of line electrified at 1·5 kV DC.
On October 17 Russian Railways and Samsung Electronics signed a memorandum of understanding for long-term co-operation to transport Samsung products in containers to Vorsino in Kaluga oblast and to provide transit services across Russia to Samsung factories in Eastern Europe.
On October 11 CRRC Qiqihar signed a contract to supply KiwiRail with 150 container wagons of a new lightweight design. CRRC has previously supplied 800 container wagons to New Zealand.
OmniTRAX Logistics Services has agreed to acquire the assets of frac sand logistics company Terracor Group, including three transloading facilities with vertical silo storage in Texas and Montana. ‘We know the frac sand industry very well, so this acquisition is a terrific opportunity for us to expand the operations’, said OmniTRAX CEO Kevin Shuba. ‘There is also great potential to expand beyond sand into other commodities.’
An inaugural Western Railway train left Concor’s Tihi Multimodal Logistics Park in Madhya Pradesh on October 22, carrying 90 TEU of containers for export.
A groundbreaking ceremony in Willimantic, Connecticut, on October 25 marked the start of work to upgrade tracks on Genesee & Wyoming's New England Central Railroad main line to enable heavier trains to serve the Port of New London. The $12·8m project is being funded by NECR ($4·6m) and a federal TIGER grant ($8·2m).
