A regular rail freight service between the Port of Amsterdam and Wuhan in China will be launched per 1 May 2019. This was agreed by WAE (Wuhan Asia Europe Logistics), NUNNER Logistics, Samskip, TMA Logistics (TMA) and the Port of Amsterdam (PoA). The parties signed an intention agreement towards this end during the Dutch trade mission to China last week.

The intention is that the train will run twice a week in both directions, NUNNER announced. The expected duration of the journey is approximately 15 days. WAE and NUNNER will jointly provide the volumes to run the trains, consisting of 41 wagons of 40 containers per ride. Samskip will handle the incoming trains on the European side. TMA is the owner of the trimodal terminal in Amsterdam, where the trains will arrive and depart. Finally, The Port of Amsterdam is one of the initiators.

Existing network

NUNNER Logistics and Samskip already have intensive cooperation in the field of rail transport in Europe, where both the Samskip terminal in Duisburg and the TMA terminal in Amsterdam are already on the network. The TMA terminal connects Amsterdam via shortsea with destinations in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Spain.Via rail, inland shipping and road connections it links to numerous destinations in the Netherlands and Europe.

A year ago a rail freight service was initiated between the Port of Amsterdam and Yiwu in China. Up till this point, the service has not been established as a regular link. Wuhan is a city with 13 million inhabitants, centrally located in China at crossroads of road, water and rail connections to the rest of China.