IF ROTTERDAM has become the focal point for chartered intermodal shuttle trains around which the European Union’s first Freightways are to be constructed, NS Cargo has been a willing and enthusiastic partner in ironing out the obstacles.
Bas C van Nes, NS Cargo’s Director, Combined Transport, says that ’rail’s share of containers moving through the port has grown from 10% to 16% in the last five years, and is expected to top 20% when the Betuwe line is completed around 2005 (RG 7.96 p428). Given that the total number of containers passing through Rotterdam is growing at 6% a year, this means that by 2005 more than 1 million TEU/year will be handled by the two existing intermodal rail terminals, plus a new one which is expected to open in around 2000.’
It is a measure of the sheer scale of the Europoort docks lining the south bank of the River Maas between the city of Rotterdam and the North Sea that the existing rail terminals are 40 km apart. Nearest to the city is RSC Rotterdam, which opened in 1994 and is operated by Rail Service Center Rotterdam BV. At the far extremity of the port, on reclaimed land that was open sea 15 years ago, is the Delta Terminal operated by Europe Combined Terminals BV which services the expanding Maasvlakte docks complex. The Delta Terminal became operational in 1984.
Both terminals have four parallel tracks under the cranes where trains up to 700m long can be loaded. The normal length is 30 to 40 wagons, each with space for 60ft of containers; a typical train conveys 60 TEU.
Delta Terminal handles about 60% of Rotterdam’s intermodal rail movements, and on a typical weekday it despatches about 20 trains to destinations as far away as Malazewicze on the Polish frontier with Belarus. Last year 248 000 TEU were transferred by the two gantry cranes, all of which were deep sea boxes. Transfer between the quays, where ships carrying up to 8000 TEU can now berth, and the rail terminal is by multi-trailer road trains carrying 10 TEU.
About 60% of the 20 daily trains serving Delta call in at RSC to off-load some boxes, and then call again on the way out to collect the second part of their intermodal cargo. Being in the older part of the port, RSC is a smaller site of 11Ha, with stacking space limited to 1000TEU.
Ton Meyerink, RSC Operations Manager, explains that ’we typically handle 20 trains in and out, three-quarters of them calling on the way to or from Delta Terminal to discharge or pick up loads. But unlike Delta, RSC handles continental traffic as well as containers coming off ships plying North Sea routes, so we are equipped to handle swap bodies and piggyback trailers. In addition, RSC handles all of the dangerous cargo for which rail is preferred because it is safer then the roads.’
As the freight arm of Netherlands Railways, NS Cargo’s role is to operate all of the trains, many of which are chartered shuttles. As van Nes points out, ’NS Cargo is itself a partner in NDX and other intermodal operators such as ERS and Optimodal Trailstar which are actually running shuttles out of Rotterdam today.’
Although no date has been set, NS Cargo will soon face competition from open access freight operators under EU Directive 91/440; van Nes says ’two companies have been licensed to carry freight, including Lovers Rail, but I would be surprised to see a start-up this year. Without a base load, it is difficult to be profitable when your trains are only running two or three days a week.’
Intermodal is vitally important to NS Cargo, accounting for 6 million out of the 21 million tonnes hauled in 1996. More than 70% of this intermodal tonnage moved across the German or Belgian frontiers.
NS Cargo still acts on behalf of the eight shuttle operators working trains out of Rotterdam in terms of providing locomotives and crews, plus wagons if required, and negotiates with the other state railways for traction, timetable paths and tariffs. While the Germans use tariffs to favour Hamburg, van Nes says DB is ’coming to terms with the new competitive environment ... I see positive signs of a change in attitude here.’
France is a different matter since ’apart from Lille and Metz, no shuttle services are able to run on SNCF tracks’ - van Nes attributes this isolationism to shuttles out of Rotterdam ’being seen by the French as a threat to Le Havre and Fos.’
Port Railway upgrading
NS Cargo also represents the interests of freight train operators in developing infrastructure to handle the massive expansion of intermodal throughput that is coming. To connect properly with the Betuwe line at Kijfhoek marshalling yard alongside the trunk line between Rotterdam and Dordrecht, the 48 km Port Railway is to be heavily upgraded and electrified at 25 kV 50Hz.
By 2010, the Port Railway is expected to be carrying over 300 trains a day of which about half will be intermodal; there are, of course, numerous connections into docks handling bulk cargoes. Around 70% of the Port Railway, which was opened in late 1960s to serve the Maasvlakte reclamation, is only single track, and this must be doubled. Additionally, the 3 km Botlek tunnel has replaced the busiest of the four lifting bridges over navigable waterways, which was already creating an operational bottleneck. The total cost of the Port Railway upgrading is put at 1·1bn guilders.
At the far end, there are plans for a third major intermodal terminal with up to 20 parallel tracks under the cranes. This will not be far from the Delta Terminal, and may even replace it. Stacking will be remote from the new terminal, and containers will be brought in for loading at exactly the time needed in a precisely controlled operation. o
CAPTION: Bas C van Nes, NS Cargo’s Director, Combined Transport, is in the front line as Europe’s biggest container port prepares to put a higher proportion of boxes on rail
CAPTION: Two established intermodal terminals are to be supplemented by a third highly-automated facility with up to 20 parallel tracks served by an electrified, double-track railway with a key lifting bridge replaced by a tunnel
