ÖBB’s cargo subsidiary Rail Cargo Group (RCG) is creating a joint venture with Serbian logistics company Transfera. The enterprise will be headquartered in Belgrade and…
Etihad Rail, the rail company of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Cosco Shipping Ports Abu Dhabi Container Freight Station.…
Russia is getting a new set of rules determining priority on the rail network from September onwards. Freight is forced to yield to all other…
“There is no reason for the member states to act indirectly as market participants via state-owned, integrated companies”. This was stated in a joint paper…
Kazakhstan is in the wake of a series of tariff hikes on the Kazakh rail network. Businesses and parliamentarians have protested the frequent price increases,…
Ukrainian Railways (UZ) has achieved year-on-year success by growing its freight transportation by 30 per cent. The growth concerns freight volumes in the period of…
Never before has France invested as much money in the development of rail freight as it is doing now. Senior executives at rail network manager…
A consortium led by SBB Cargo recently submitted a report to the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT) on the DAC+ tests it has been…
The French National Assembly, part of the French Parliament, is asking its government to oppose the Weights and Dimensions Directive (WDD) of the Greening Freight…
A UK General Election has been called for 4 July. Most observers were taken by surprise when a rain-soaked prime minister, Sunak, told the waiting…
Sweden’s traffic administration intends to advance several rail infrastructure projects along the country’s northern Iron Ore Line, which is crucial for mines in the area.…
The Polish Federation of Independent Rail Operators (ZNPK) asked the country’s Ministry of Infrastructure for a gradual reduction of Track Access Charges over the next…
Business
Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) has merged its ADY Container subsidiary with ADY Express as part of its reorganisation process. This initiative will lead to container and…
Lithuanian rail freight operator LTG Cargo has announced a number of price increases for its services. Supposedly, the increases will affect approximately a fifth of…
The two entities replacing the French rail freight operator Fret SNCF now have their official name. The company taking care of locomotive maintenance will be…
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…
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
Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) has merged its ADY Container subsidiary with ADY Express as part of its reorganisation process. This initiative will lead to container and…
China is once again sending freight trains to its neighbour Afghanistan. It already started such a service in 2016, but is now giving it another…
Kazakhstan has presented plans to launch the so-called “Seamless Transit” project along the Northern Corridor between China and Europe in early 2025. It would enable…
Russian Railways (RZD) keeps struggling with a locomotive shortage, reducing its capacity to grow or even maintain its transported freight volumes. Loading has been declining…
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
A Vienna-based telematics specialist has won a contract with DB Cargo AG to provide self-powered monitoring telematics hardware for freight rolling stock. CargoMon Systems GmbH…
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…
Infrastructure
Renovation works on the Emmerich – Oberhausen railway started on Saturday 2 November. It is an important route for freight trains, and will lead to…
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…