A new rail connection between Wroclaw in Poland and Moerdijk in the Netherlands is in the final stages of completion. On 9 October, the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen visits the Schavemaker terminal in Wroclaw, to take a look at the future stop on the vital European train connection.

The Moerdijk-Wroclaw connection is realised as part of a partnership named Linked by Rail, aiming to make transport between the two countries more competitive. It is the second connection within this framework, the first being the railway line Rotterdam-Poznan. The Moerdijk-Wroclaw line connects the important manufacturing region of Silesia in the south of Poland with the intermodal terminal of Moerdijk, where goods can be transported to the UK.

The terminals

The terminal in south-Poland is managed by logistics company Schavemaker and actually lies in Kąty Wrocławskie, ten kilometre from the city of Wrocław in Poland. It is also strategically located on routes to central and western European countries and Asian countries, such as China. Schavemaker recently extended its inland rail terminal to be able to handle more trains and increase storage capacity, anticipating growing cargo volumes in the near future.

In the meantime, the Dutch Port of Moerdijk started work on a second rail terminal last year. With two rail terminals, the container handling capacity for freight trains could be doubled.

Direct connection

As the Rotterdam-Poznan railway line, the second connection between the countries is a direct railway link, enabling short lead times and high reliability. The direct link is made possible as cargo of several shippers is grouped and transported in one journey.The Rotterdam-Poznan connection currently runs six intermodal trains per week.