Poland and Lithuania are fighting cigarette smuggling on freight trains coming from their neighbour Belarus. The former seems to encounter a growing number of attempts…
A “premiere”, as Tailwind Intermodal calls it in its own press release. The subsidiary of supermarket chain Lidl has started as a rail operator. The…
Russian state-owned bank VTB has purchased Freight One. Earlier, the bank took over the rail freight operator’s management. In February, Freight One pledged nearly 70…
Turkish state rolling stock manufacturer Türasaş is developing a wagon that can carry military vehicles as well as containers. The design of the wagon focuses…
Nearly three quarters of all rail freight transportation is being carried out below the cost price in Kazakhstan. As a result, the country awaits more…
It’s the less glamorous aspect of the business, but proper maintenance is the route to proper business. That’s probably why GB Railfreight has invested in…
Danish logistics and forwarding giant DSV and a consortium led by private equity fund CVC Capital Partners have submitted their final offers to acquire DB…
Lineas, one of the largest private rail operators in Europe, has launched a new rail freight route. In cooperation with ECS, it will be carrying…
The Nordic region’s largest freight terminal will get various technical improvements, in both capacity and infrastructure and is now inviting stakeholders to contribute to the…
The German rail associations Die Güterbahnen, Mofair, VPI and Pro Bahn want to remove infrastructure management from the DB Group’s tasks. The parties are not…
Uzbekistan is selling a 35 per cent share of its national container freight operator Uztemiryolkonteyner (UTYK). The process incurred a delay of almost a year,…
The UK’s largest maritime intermodal logistics operator, Freightliner, has announced what they call a market first. Freightliner says their new ECO90 booking service allows customers…
Business
Polish rail operator Laude Smart Intermodal seems on track to surpass last year’s freight volumes of its Ukrainian operations, with January-September figures approaching total 2023…
Four labour unions at France’s State railway continues to call for a moratorium on the discontinuity of Fret SNCF and have brandished the threat of…
There is a purchase and sale agreement for Estonian national rail operator Operail. It is Tiigi Keskus, an Estonian real estate company that also owns…
The German Ministry of Transport presented its rail traffic forecast for 2040, showing significant optimism especially when it comes to freight. Concerning total tonnes transported,…
In Depth
Developers Positive Traction have successfully completed trials with their prototype electric shunter, rebuilt from a successful diesel design dating back to the 1930s. Their first-of-a-kind…
The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is supposed to provide a shortcut to rail freight traffic, alongside road traffic, from Germany into Scandinavia. The grand opening of the…
A major study of the development of rail freight in the industrial and agricultural sectors in France has concluded that there is the potential for…
CFR Marfă, Romania’s state-owned rail freight operator, will soon be liquidated following bankruptcy. In its place will now come a new state-owned operator by the…
Asia-Europe
French rail rolling stock manufacturer Alstom is building four maintenance centres in Kazakhstan. The total investment revolves around 50 million euros and the first site,…
Problems on the Russian railway network seem to be persistent and worsening. Reportedly, there are more and more locomotives being left unused, all the while…
Besides the recently announced 400 million dollar deal with Kazakh Railways (KTZ), American rail technology company Wabtec is delivering more rolling stock to the rail…
The Kazakh Port of Kuryk, on the Caspian Sea coast, will get three new terminals. They are supposed to be ready by 2027, and Abu…
Intermodal
Austrian rail freight operator Rail Cargo Group (RCG) is launching a new service through its recently established Serbian subsidiary. The service will connect Serbia’s capital…
The Spanish ministry of transport began two feasibility studies concerning the port of A Coruña, in the northwest of the country. One of the studies…
France has published a “national master plan” for combined transport. Drawn up by the State Directorate-General for Infrastructure, Transport and Mobility (DGITM), in close collaboration…
A new intermodal pilot project to move Volkswagen products between Germany and Spain will start in 2025. The initiative, led by the German Association of…
Policy
The Dutch state secretary for infrastructure, Chris Jansen, recently attended a Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) demonstration with his German counterpart. Jansen sees potential in the…
The Greening Freight Package remains a significant initiative for the European Union. One of its pillars, the Combined Transport Directive, is however once again in…
A French Parliamentary bill aimed at developing rail freight has been tabled by a group of MPs which, if passed into law, would oblige all…
The Italian Ministry of Transport has opened applications for the 2024/25 Ferrobonus incentive, one of the main measures to support the country’s rail freight sector.…
Technology
The Dutch state secretary for infrastructure, Chris Jansen, recently attended a Digital Automatic Coupling (DAC) demonstration with his German counterpart. Jansen sees potential in the…
Developers Positive Traction have successfully completed trials with their prototype electric shunter, rebuilt from a successful diesel design dating back to the 1930s. Their first-of-a-kind…
The Öresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden is the site of a pilot project that is supposed to reduce maintenance on the rail tracks. With…
Kazakh Railways (KTZ) has tested a service with a double-stack container load. Its freight subsidiary KTZ Express cooperated with wagon manufacturer Ziksto (ЗИКСТО) to make…
Infrastructure
The Slovenian Parliament officially approved the project to double the Divača-Koper railway line. Construction works for the second track leading into the country’s largest port…
The east of Spain is currently experiencing extreme weather conditions, especially in the area of Valencia. The events have already claimed dozens of lives, caused…
Croatia is planning to invest a record 6 billion euros in its railway infrastructure during the coming decade. Its infrastructure manager, HŽ Infrastruktura, says that…
The London Olympics of 2012 is still developing, and rail freight is the last medal winner. The UK infrastructure agency Network Rail has been given…