CFL Multimodal, RTSB and Chengdu International Railway Service Co have launched a service between Bettembourg-Dudelange in Luxembourg and Chengdu Qingbaijiang International Railway Port in China. The inaugural service left the Grand Duchy on April 4, with the containers scheduled to arrive in Chengdu on April 19. A weekly service is planned by mid-2019, with door-to-door connections by rail and road.
Bombardier Transportation has handed over a Traxx AC3 locomotive to operator Hessische Güterbahn at its Kassel factory.
Transportes Ferroviarios Especiales has changed its name to Transfesa Logistics.
Freight One has invested 31m roubles manufacturing 33 sets of equipment which enable conventional flat wagons to carry up to 36 spare wheelsets to its repair workshops, removing the need for dedicated vehicles. ‘Road transport is expensive, and the specialised wagons have a limited service life’, said Sergei Goncharov, Deputy CEO for Technical Development.
Holmen has awarded Green Cargo a contract to transport increased volumes of timber from its forests in northern Sweden to mills in the south.
DSV has launched a full-load door-to-door multimodal service between the UK and Spain, using the daily VIIA Britanica unaccompanied semi-trailer carrying service between the Port of Calais and Le Boulou. DSV will collect the trailer and deliver directly to the customer, initially focusing on the south and midlands of the UK and the Barcelona area of Spain.
Freight One has developed a digital traffic control centralisation system to allow ports to predict their wagon needs up to two months ahead. The initial deployment are at UCL’s Tuapse Commercial Sea Port on the Black Sea and Sea Port of St Petersburg.
Representatives of the national railways of Kazakhstan, China, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan met in Almaty on April 4 to discuss the development of transit freight traffic. ‘It is important to develop favourable tariffs for development of transit of goods from China’, said Kanat Almagambetov, First Deputy Chairman of Kazakhstan’s KTZ. The importance of timely delivery was emphasised, and KTZ committed to providing shippers with suitable rolling stock.
A contract for GB Railfreight to operate trains from Southampton to British Gypsum’s plasterboard plant in Robertsbridge has been extended to December 2021, and to include further terminal services at Robertsbridge and an additional flow from AV Dawson in Teeside to British Gypsum’s plant at East Leake. An average of 10 services will run per week.
Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar is planning to export fertiliser from a new plant to Turkey via the Kars – Tbilisi railway.
PKP Cargo has signed a letter of intent with fuel company Orlen Paliwa for the distribution of diesel fuel to power PKP Cargo’s locomotives.
On April 1 ČD Cargo began transporting coal to the Werndorf power station in Austria’s Steiermark.