News from the world rail freight market.
Softronic subsidiary Softrans has entered the leasing market with an agreement to lease two six-axle 6·4 MW Transmontana locomotives to Romanian freight operator PSP Cargo Group under a deal including full maintenance.
Finnish forestry company UPM has ordered 150 roundwood timber wagons from VR FleetCare. Deliveries from VR FleetCare’s Pieksämäki works will start at the end of 2026 and the order is scheduled to be completed in 2028. The Snps wagons will be 20 m long and feature side and end columns to keep logs stable in transit. ‘The purchase is a significant investment for us in domestic logistics and enables the development of a competitive roundwood supply chain’, said UPM Director of Operations for Forest Products, Ville Parkkinen.
On November 26 Managing Director Dr Kayode Opeifa said Nigerian Railway Corp would be ‘delighted’ to work with the Southwest Development Commission to review out of use railways in the region. SWDC Managing Director, Charles Diji Akinola, said regional rail connectivity would be key to the economic revitalisation in the six states of the southwest, and the commission is interested in reactivating the Osogbo – Dagbolu – Erunmu line, and the Idogo route is key to food security. ‘We are looking at encouraging some investors to come into the rail sector and run the rail lines in the region’, said Akinola. ‘We are willing to build new spurs to connect all the states in the southwest to the national lines by rail, thereby making the dry port at Omi Adio and in Moniya more active.’
On December 3 Greece, Bulgaria and Romania signed a memorandum of understanding covering a political commitment and strategic framework to boost cross-border co-operation on rail and other transport infrastructure. This framework would support trade flows, economic cohesion and security across the region. A Black Sea–Aegean Sea Corridor Platform is intended to bring together the three member states’ Ministers of Transport to provide strategy guidance and political co-ordination, supported by European institutions.
German freight operator Rheinische Bahnpersonal- und Verkehrsgesellschaft has expanded its fleet by leasing a Stadler Euro9000 electro-diesel locomotive from European Loc Pool. According to RBP Managing Director Thomas Schön, the loco’s dual-mode design ‘enables us to offer services that are tailored precisely to our customers’ needs’. He also suggested that concerns over the state of the German main line network meant that having a powerful diesel module on a locomotive offered important route flexibility when running services.
US freight forwarder Schneider National has launched Schneider Fast Track, which it describes as ‘a premium solution designed for shippers with time-sensitive and high-service freight needs’. Fast Track combines Schneider’s extensive road truckload and intermodal capabilities with strategic rail partnerships to create a network of ‘just in time’ intermodal routes covering the USA and Mexico. ‘Shippers can confidently convert just-in-time, inter-plant and customer freight from over-the-road to intermodal, gaining more secure capacity alternatives and cost efficiency without sacrificing speed’, the company says.