Laude Smart Intermodal has ordered two more Vectron MS locomotives from Siemens Mobility for delivery next year. They have been purchased with the support of EU funds for intermodal transport awarded through Poland’s the Centre for EU Transport Projects. Marcin Witczak, President of the operator’s management board, said ‘Laude wants to be a creator of the intermodal market, not just a participant. Vectrons are not only new, multi-system locomotives, but also technologies that will allow cargo to be transported at competitive prices and times compared to the offer of road carriers. This is particularly important for transport connecting Ukraine with Poland and further with Germany and the Netherlands.’
AllSpark has been awarded a €2·9m contract to design a 16 km rail connection between the port of Muuga and the future Rail Baltica at Soodevahe. ‘Connecting the Muuga freight terminal to the Rail Baltica line is of strategic importance for Estonia’, said Anvar Salomets, Chairman of the management board of implementation agency Rail Baltic Estonia. ‘It is the only location in Estonia where a rail line built to the European standard will connect directly to a seaport, enabling the flow of international goods from the port straight to Europe.’
Aurizon has been awarded contracts to provide integrated rail, road and port logistics services handling 1·3 mpta for BHP’s Copper South Australia operations for up to 15 years from October 2025. The transport of copper concentrate and cathode from BHP’s Olympic Dam, Carrapateena and Prominent Hill mines, as well as inbound freight, will shift to rail between Pimba and Port Adelaide. An A$40m rail terminal will be built at Pimba. ‘The shift to more rail transport means fewer trucks on public roads, delivering improved safety and reduced congestion, a significantly smaller carbon footprint and an ability to scale up quickly with the potential for additional train services as BHP continues to expand its SA Copper operations’, said Aurizon Managing Director & CEO Andrew Harding on June 16.
Lithuania’s LTG Cargo has taken delivery of the first 40 of 200 open wagons ordered from Dniprovagonmash at cost of €12·7m. LTG Cargo Polska was responsible for the delivery through Poland, which required the bogies to be changed twice. LTG Cargo will use the wagons to transport 700 000 tonnes of aggregates including for the construction of Rail Baltica.
RENFE Mercancías is testing the Trenmapp tool developed with Barcelona-based AllRead Machine Learning Technologies for the automated recording of wagon and container registration numbers and the identification of RID codes. It can also monitor twistlocks and container sealing mechanisms.
Rail Cargo Group has concluded a framework agreement to lease Sggns and/or Sggnss wagons container wagons from Ermewa, MFD Rail, Railrelease and VTG Rail Europe for a fixed three-year term which can be extended three times for one-year periods.
A pilot wagonload service between the Centro de Transportes de Burgos and the port of València is to be trialled this summer. The plan is to grow from one train pair per week to two or three, subject to sufficient backloading from València.