News from the world rail freight market.
Ahead of the opening of the Koralmbahn in December, work began on November 21 to renovate a disued industrial site at Peggau in southern Austria for use as a rail-served intermodal terminal. Wagon specialist Innofreight is working on the project with industrial companies Alpacem and InterCal, who run a cement plant and a limestone quarry nearby. The 2∙7 ha site is to be converted into a high-performance logistics hub for rail freight transport, facilitating greater use of rail freight by the two industrial producersg.
Maria Price has been named as the next Secretary-General of the European Rail Freight Association. She joins ERFA from OTIF, having previously held senior roles at the infrastructure managers’ association EIM and the International Union of Wagon Keepers. Price will take up the position on March 1, with Josslin Petit continuing as acting Secretary-General until then.
Transports de la Région Morges-Bière-Cossonay has ordered two more metre-gauge Stadler electro-diesel locos to haul freight between Morges and Bière from the end of 2028. MBC previously ordered one loco at the end of 2024, as part of the canton’s strategy to transport more goods by rail in an environmentally friendly manner. ‘The shift from road to rail freight transport is a significant step forward for the environment and will reduce traffic on the roads in the Morges district by some 20 000 lorries per year’, said MBC Managing Director Pierre-Alain Perren on November 24.
Arc Infrastructure, Genesis Minerals and the Western Australia state government have reached an agreement to shorten the Leonora branch by 7 km and for Arc to invest in new open access rail facilities to enable expansion of Genesis Minerals’ gold mining activities at Tower Hill. The new Leonora Goldfields Rail Terminal east of Goldfields Highway will collocate open access rail facilities, Arc’s maintenance facilities and Aurizon’s private intermodal terminal, providing continued access for existing rail users and capacity for new customers.
The Saar Rail transport subsidiary of steel maker Stahl-Holding-Saar Group is introducing the Zedas Cargo Shunting & Long Haul software to plan, control and document shunting at the Dillingen, Völklingen, Burbach and Neunkirchen sites, as well services as between the sites. Saar Rail is one of the largest industrial operators in Germany, with almost 40 locomotives, more than 1 500 wagons and 160 km of track. Its existing systems were reaching their limits, with a need to comply with new regulatory requirements by 2026 and the need to work flexibly with different rail transport companies in the future.
India’s Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on November 18 a revised tariff policy aimed at cutting the cost of moving cement by rail by up to 30%. The revised pricing structure eliminates distance-based rates in favour of a flat charge, and the government says it will also support uptake of intermodal containers and development of more bulk cement terminals to create what it terms ‘seamless door-to-door logistics’.
The Midwest Association of Rail Shippers will host its annual Winter Meeting on January 13–15 2026 in Schaumburg, Illinois. The theme for the meeting is Fast Track to the Future.