‘We need to have a better eye for rail freight’s positives’

The sentiment around rail freight is too often negative, not least due to lack of expertise of general news media. That is the view of Susanne Dirksen, sales director at the Dutch company Schavemaker Logistics. In her opinion, we should have a better eye for the positive sides of rail freight. Dirksen explains her views to RailFreight.com.

“National newspapers report very negatively on rail freight. This is often because there is a lack of expertise, or they build their entire reporting on a single term that stands out. For example, there are the notorious ‘poison trains’ (Dutch: giftreinen) with dangerous chemicals.

The media often cover those, but they constitute only a small share of all trains on the network. They forget that safety measures for rail are much better than those for road vehicles with dangerous freight, where the driver just leaves and there is no control during the trip. Rail transport is put in an unjustified negative spotlight.

Rail transport is put in an unjustified negative spotlight.

Besides safety, there are other positives. Rail has a much bigger capacity for freight transportation than road vehicles. The road sector is struggling with a labour shortage, and a train carrying 40 containers can replace that same amount of trucks and drivers on the road. Considering that people do not want to work full-time anymore, international transportation becomes very difficult as a result.

Infrastructure works are often highlighted as a hindrance for rail transportation too, but this is no different for the road. Road works lead to congestion. And on top of that, when looking at the newly reintroduced border controls in Germany, road transportation becomes even slower and more difficult. Especially just-in-time deliveries become that much harder. The road loses its advantage over rail transportation on long distances. It also seems likely that more countries will follow in Germany’s footsteps.

Lastly, as we strive to reach net-zero emissions in Europe, it is clear that rail takes the crown as the superior transport modality. You can achieve a 70 per cent reduction in emissions through a modal shift from the road to rail. There is no question that we need rail to achieve our climate goals in the transport sector.

It is clear that rail takes the crown as the superior transport modality.

Thankfully, there are a number of pioneers who are pushing rail forwards. We are seeing a switch from the road to the rail by a number of classic road transporters. These are often family-run companies. They are pioneering and betting on a road-rail multimodal combination. In the Netherlands, you can think of such companies as Leemans, BTT or my own Schavemaker Logistics.

At Schavemaker, we also had the choice between road and rail. Whereas we still have 350 trucks in operation, 20 years ago we decided to open a rail terminal in Poland. At the time, we already saw the labour shortage in the road sector growing bigger. That was one of the main reasons to say: yes, we are talking about a distance of a thousand kilometres between the Netherlands and Poland. When we do the first and last-mile by truck, and the main part via rail, our drivers can be sitting at the dinner table by the evening.

We started with our rail service in 2019, and now we are departing five times a week. I think that is the type of success story that shows: it is possible and there is positivity in rail. We are taking 20,000 trucks off the road with that service. That is great and we are proud of it.”