DB Cargo has opened an automotive logistics centre at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen. Lithium-ion batteries for electric cars will be delivered 650 km from the Mercedes-Benz plant at Hedelfingen near Stuttgart, with trains arriving alongside the assembly halls for unloading. ‘Batteries are not exactly light, and must be handled with sensitivity and transported carefully until they reach the assembly line’, said Dr Sigrid Nikutta, DB board member for freight. ‘So a DB Cargo train is quite naturally the best climate-friendly mode of transport for the job.’
PKP Cargo has awarded Siemens Mobility a contract to supply a further five Vectron MS locomotives for use on container services in Poland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and to provide eight years of full maintenance. Deliveries are planned for Q1 2023, taking PKP Cargo’s Vectron fleet to 25 ordered in September 2015 (15), 2019 (five) and February this year (five).
Logistics company Cobantur Boltas introduced a weekly intermodal train between München and Halkalı near Istanbul on January 21, with DB Cargo providing traction on behalf of Kombiverkehr. ‘We have been running a train across the Alps connecting with the ferry at Trieste for years, and we will continue to do so‘, said Iskender Cobanoglu, Managing Director of Cobantur Boltas. ‘Customers now can choose which of the two routes is better for them.’
Spain’s Ministry of Transport has signed a preliminary agreement on financing conditions for a €157·1 m rail link to the new deep-water port at Punta Langosteira, west of A Coruña. The project is backed by Autoridad Portuaria de A Coruña and Puertos del Estado, and is being financed by the EU’s Recovery & Resilience Facility. Tenders for construction are due to be issued in late February.
On January 19 GB Railfreight launched a service for Brett Aggregates hauling dredged aggregates from Newhaven in East Sussex to Thorney Mill at West Drayton in London. ‘This new service demonstrates how transporting material by rail, which otherwise would have been taken by road, significantly reduces the environmental impact of important construction projects across the southeast’, said the operator’s Business Development Director Tim Hartley.
RENFE Mercancías has launched a refrigerated container service on a 1 650 km route linking Algeciras with Marín, north of Vigo. Operated for Mærsk, it has has 21 wagons and two generators, including a backup unit, and initially runs weekly.
ÖBB Rail Cargo Group has launched an intermodal connection between the Wolfurt container terminal in western Austria and Frenkendorf in Switzerland. There will be three weekly round trips, with connections to RCG’s routes to northern, southern and eastern Europe.
Mullen Group has signed a multi-year agreement for Canadian National to continue to provide intermodal services to its APPS Cartage and APPS Cargo Terminals subsidiaries.
On February 1 RZD Logistics launched a block train service carrying 50 refrigerated containers of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables as well as medical supplies between Zibo in China’s Shandong Province and Moscow via the Zabaikalsk border crossing. RZD Logistics said it acts as operator along the entire route and implements a range of services, including sourcing wagons, paying tariffs in both countries and providing last mile service. Further departure points are planned.