The Luxembourgish company CFL multimodal is going to run a new intermodal service connecting its terminal in Bettembourg-Dudelange (LU) with the terminal Railport Arad in Curtici (RO). This service is expected to be launched on 8 October 2024, and RailFreight.com had the exclusivity to talk with Sven Löffler and Thomas Frank, respectively, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Sales Intermodal.

“We’ll start on the 8th of October, and actually, we’re preparing the start with the terminals, the railway undertakings and – most important – our customers”, said Thomas Frank. Initially, there will be three weekly roundtrips, while CFL multimodal is aiming to increase the frequency already next year to four or even five weekly round trips.

“The rail leg shows a transit time of approximately 40 hours. Between the drop-off and the pick-up, it will be around 50 to 55 hours”, Thomas Frank explained. For this venture, CFL multimodal is partnering up with CFL cargo and Ecco Rail for the traction. Ecco Rail is a private rail operator based in Austria, which will provide the traction from Germany via Austria and Hungary to Romania, while CFL cargo will take care of the stretch in Luxembourg.

The wagon set will consist of 20x T3000 pocket wagons, and CFL intermodal is also offering the possibility of carrying non-cranable semi-trailers, thanks to a good cooperation with Austrian-based company Vega and its r2l-system. In total, each train can load 40 semi-trailers or containers.

Connecting the Balkans to Western Europe

“Various large shippers have settled their production sites in Romania. Luxembourg is ideally located to move such cargo by rail or truck to other Western European destinations”, Thomas Frank pointed out. From the hub in Bettembourg-Dudelange, there are various interesting gateway connections available to France, Belgium and Spain. The customers may also benefit from the first and last-mile trucking services offered by CFL logistics in Bettembourg-Dudelange, including the possibility of cross-docking its cargo in close-by distance from the intermodal terminal. “A few customers also showed an interest in moving its cargo further up to Scandinavia by using the intermodal connection Bettembourg-Rostock and then jumping on the ferries to Sweden and Finland.”

At the other end of this connection at the terminal Railport Arad, the Austrian railway company RCA is offering 4 to 5 weekly round trips to Tekirdag (TR). “We don’t see this as just a connection between Luxembourg and Romania, but also to provide an interesting alternative to connect Turkey via the Balkans with Western Europe – all the way by land”, Sven Löffler explains.

“An important perk of this service is that both terminals, Bettembourg-Dudelange and Railport Arad, are operating 24/7, which will be very helpful to mitigate eventually occurring delays on the extended rail leg of approximately 1,500 km,” Thomas Frank stated.

Avoiding cross-border road congestion

Moving goods by rail along this axis will allow the customers to save CO2 emissions, avoid congested roads and avoid the daily queues at the Schengen border between Romania and Hungary. “During a previous trip to Romania, we crossed the HU/RO border and noticed many trucks queueing there for several kilometres. By choosing the alternative to go by train, crossing the border will be significantly faster”, Sven Löffler pointed out.

So CFL multimodal and all its partners and customers look very much forward to launching this new intermodal connection soon, connecting the Balkan with the Benelux area in a regular and environmentally friendly way!