Kenya Railways reintroduced livestock transport on May 23, carrying cattle from Nanyuki to Nairobi’s Kenya Meat Commission Depot.
Transwaggon has delivered the last of 156 Tatravagonka wagons to Mercer Holz for the transport of containerised woodchips. The wagons were specifically optimised for Mercer Holz’s needs in partnership with Forstlogistik CH. ‘Our main focus was to further standardise our wagon fleet and use only one type of wagon’, said Wolfgang Beck, Managing Director of Mercer Holz.
Canadian National has committed to divest Kansas City Southern’s 110 km line between New Orleans and Baton Rouge as part of the merger plan. Canadian Pacific, which had also been seeking to acquire KCS, said this was ‘clear recognition by CN that it and KCS have always been head-to-head competitors, contrary to CN’s repeated claims that the combination was end-to-end’, and would not address the competitive issues.
In the first four months of 2021, the state-owned Trenes Argentinos Cargas transported 2·1 million tonnes of freight, up 27% compared to the same period in 2020 and 56% compared to 2019. TAC said its growth was thanks to new customers and fleet improvements. ‘Development of the railways is the best way to achieve national economic growth’, commented Transport Minister Alexis Guerrera.
The European Commission has approved under state aid rules the modification of an existing German aid scheme to support rail freight operators by partially compensating them for track access charges. The 2021 budget has been increased from €350m to €567m and the maximum compensation from 45% to 98%. The Commission said this would contribute to reducing road congestion and CO2 emissions and mitigate the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on the rail freight sector.
Having been cancelled last year, the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers’ Summer Meeting will be offered both online and in-person July 12–13, with the theme of ‘Resurgence - Together We Grow’.
Statistics released by the Office of Rail & Road on May 27 showed that rail freight moved in Britain in 2020-21 fell by 8∙6% compared with 2019-20, driven by a 17∙2% reduction in volumes during the first six months of 2020-21. However, the second half of the year saw volumes broadly return to pre-pandemic levels. At 69 million tonnes, freight lifted in 2020-21 fell by 4∙4% compared with 2019-20, representing the lowest annual total of freight lifted since 1984-85.
GTLK has awarded United Wagon Co a 864m rouble contract to supply 200 Type 19-9549 grain hopper wagons for lease to Orel Railway Service Centre.
GB Railfreight has announced a five-year volume-based agreement to provide Mediterranean Shipping Company (UK) with rail services from Felixstowe and London Gateway to the central England and Yorkshire, with a minimum commitment of five days a week. ‘Given MSC’s projected future growth we have struck a flexible agreement which will allow both parties to make better use of the services we share’, said GBRf Managing Director John Smith.
FESCO has launched a weekly Chita Shuttle container train from the Bely Rast terminal in Moscow to Chita, 900 km east of Irkutsk, with a transit time of seven days and expected volumes of 300-400 TEU of consumer goods per month.
