SNCF’s logistics subsidiary Geodis launched a scheduled intermodal service between Łódź and Barcelona on June 11, which company said was the first direct rail connection between Poland and Spain. On the inaugural run, 44 containers and swapbodies were moved over three days; ‘last mile’ transfers in Catalunya then took place by road. Geodis is initially offering one train per week, leaving Łódź every Tuesday and returning eastwards from Spain on Fridays.
French freight operator Régiorail and its partner ID Logistics have converted a trial service carrying mineral water for Danone into a permanent flow. The train has been running on Wednesdays since the start of the year between the bottling plant at Evian and a terminal at Grans-Miramas, where retailer Carrefour has a warehousing hub supplying its supermarkets across the southeast of the country.
Malte Lawrenz has been re-elected as Secretary General of the German wagon keepers’ association VPI for a further three-year term. ‘I am delighted to have this tailwind to work together to strengthen rail as a mode of transport. The growth of the association to a new high of 300 member companies is good evidence that we are on the right track’, he said after his mandate was renewed in mid-June.
The government of the Spanish region of Asturias has called tenders for the supply of two 4·8 tonne payload wagons to increase freight capacity on the 2·2 km underground funicular which links the village of Bulnes with the outside world. Until the funicular opened in 2001, the remote village could only be reached by foot, donkey or helicopter.