FRANCE: Dunkerque-Port has selected Modalis Group to operate a rail-road transhipment terminal which is being built to encourage modal shift from road to rail.
The 9·6 ha facility is being developed at a cost of €25m with opening planned for March 2026. It is aimed at unaccompanied semi-trailers, swap bodies and intermodal transport units from the port’s roll-on/roll-off ferry services, as well as flows generated by logistics and industrial activities in the Dunkerque region.
It will have a capacity of up to four 750 m trains a day, enabling up to 50 000 intermodal transport units to be removed from the roads each year from 2032. The terminal will also host value-added activities such as washing, swap body and semi-trailer maintenance and minor rail maintenance.
Modalis Group subsidiary Delta Rail will offer regular trains to and from northern Italy, and the terminal will also receive other operators’ trains.
’This new terminal represents a major opportunity for modal shift, not only for transporters using the port’s roll-on/roll-off services but also for the entire industrial and logistics ecosystem’, said Maurice Georges, Chairman of the Dunkerque-Port executive board, when the appointment of Modalis was announced on July 10.
Modalis Group Chairman Bernard Meï said ‘there is complementarity between the logistics, port and rail ecosystems which is one of the major challenges of decarbonisation.’ He said 80% of goods arrive through sea ports, ‘and the choice is then made to use rail, water or road transport. Equipping the ports with modern modal shift infrastructure and efficient handling vehicles will guarantee mass freight demand throughout France.’
