New direct railway link Barcelona-Lyon
A new direct railway line has been established between Barcelona in Spain and Lyon in France. The weekly service is an important addition to the network connecting the port of Barcelona to the hinterland.
Trains on the railway connection will call on the Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST), which is part of Hutchison Ports. The southern gateway especially serves import cargo from Asia and export cargo from the Center North of the peninsula. For many trade lanes, transit times through this port are faster, leading to a reduction in inventory cost and sea freight, the company pointed out.
More connections
From the southern gate, regular railway connections link to the main Spanish cities, such as Zaragoza, Madrid, Pamplona, Miranda de Ebro, Tarragona and Burgos.
Guillermo Belcastro, Hutchison Ports-BEST CEO said: “With this new service, along with the existing ones, BEST significantly extends its multimodal offer, placing the terminal at the forefront of Mediterranean intermodal terminals. As such, it is a competitive alternative for the logistics market of both the peninsula and the rest of Southern Europe.”
Barcelona port
With the new connection, BEST is the first container terminal in Spain that offers direct rail services to shippers in European countries with UIC gauge. Barcelona is the only Spanish port offering railway connection to France with a European gauge track, giving it a prime advantage over other Spanish ports.
Due to these factors, the port of Barcelona was the European port with the largest growth in 2017. Rail freight volumes handled by the Port of Barcelona amounted to 243,800 TEUs in 2017, indicating an increase of eight per cent compared to the previous year. Its container traffic totalled 2.98 million TEUs, 32 per cent more than in 2016.