EUROPE: Planning is well advanced for the launch of a rail service carrying road semi-trailers between the Asian side of Istanbul and London via the Channel Tunnel, Albert Bastius, COO of TX Logistik, told Rail Business UK at the InnoTrans exhibition.
The initiative is almost ready to launch, once the details of the French leg of the journey are finalised. Bastius said he hopes services will be running by January 2023 at the latest.
TX Logistik is owned by the Mercitalia subsidiary of the Italian state railway group FS. The new route would build on its existing Istanbul – Köln service, which uses the NiKRASA system to transport non-craneable semi-trailers by rail.
Services would run to the Barking international freight terminal in east London, with a transit time of around 20 days.
- Subscribers can read an in-depth article on Channel Tunnel concessionaire Eurotunnel’s plans to develop the cross-Channel unaccompanied freight market from Railway Gazette International magazine.
