The German rail sector fully recovered from the pandemic in 2022. According to an annual German market survey, German rail freight exceeded its pre-pandemic performance levels by 10 per cent. However, performance also stagnated in...Read more
The Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT) will allocate over 67 million euros for the construction of a rail terminal east of Milan, in northern Italy. The new transshipment terminal will be built on a...Read more
The Spanish regions Galicia, Asturias, and Castilla y Leon are demanding to be involved in the Atlantic Corridor of the TEN-T network. The three regions prepared an investment plan, amounting to 7,9 billion euros, to...Read more
Rail freight services between Russia and North Korea have been reinstated for the first time since 2020, when they were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first train left Russia and will reach North...Read more
After the approval of recovery funds by the European Commission in June, the Italian government has implemented a scheme to compensate rail freight companies for the losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decree was...Read more
The project made by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (Group FS) for the expansion of the Santomarco Tunnel, in Southern Italy, recently hit a controversial stop. Last week, in a meeting held in Paola, attended among others...Read more
Swiss railway companies presented four measures “to safeguard capacity and stabilise operations on the railway line on the left bank of the Rhine, via France”. The companies involved are VAP, BLS Cargo AG, Hupac Group,...Read more
North Korean authorities proposed the resumption of rail freight traffic with China to cope with a significant shortage of supplies. The service, which was stopped due to the pandemic, connects the Chinese city of Dandong,...Read more
Concerns are mounting that a corona outbreak in the Chinese port city of Ningbo could lead to new logistics congestion. Maersk noted in an update that three out of five Ningbo’s container terminals border the...Read more
The rapidly spreading Omikron mutation of the coronavirus could trigger a boom in sick staff. The international trade union International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is already speaking of an ‘Omikron crew crunch’ for the shipping...Read more
The port of Trieste has been paralysed by protesters against the introduction of a corona ticket at work, according to local media. Hundreds of strikers have gathered in front of the port area’s entrance, and...Read more
Many countries in Europe have enabled access to rail at a reduced or even nullified rate in order to support railways during the pandemic. This is great news for the railway undertakings, but not all...Read more
The pandemic and the consequent lockdowns continue to impact heavily on rail freight. Compared to 2019 figures, revenues from rail freight have gone down from -3 per cent in December 2020 to 10 per cent...Read more
The Swiss terminal operator Swissterminal is offering customers a new container disinfection service, which makes for what it calls ‘virus-free containers’. The introduction of this solution is in direct response to the increased need for...Read more
The Belgian government has announced to financially support the rail freight industry. Until 30 June, a reduced tariff applies for freight trains, and cancellation and reservation costs are waived. The support scheme applies from 1...Read more
“In all my years working in this industry, I have never seen anything this crazy”, says Osmo Lahtinen, the founder of the Finnish container leasing company OVL. The ‘crazy’ refers to the different situations in...Read more
Pictures of huge queues of trucks heading for the Channel ports of Dover and Folkestone have been all over he UK news all weekend. Now, with countries all over Europe closing their borders to UK...Read more
Rail could offer the best means of distributing COVID vaccines around the UK. With tens of millions of time-sensitive and difficult to transport doses to be delivered around the entire country, the best long-term solution...Read more
Port operator DP World has made an offer to transit COVID-19 vaccines for free into the UK. It offers to do this through their quaysides and their subsidiary P&O Ferries. The offer is widely reported...Read more
Non-discriminatory support measures for everyone in the rail freight sector. That is what the European Rail Freight Association wants from the European Commission and the Member States, responding to the the second COVID-19 wave hitting...Read more
Although Europe is making no move to buy Chinese vaccines, cooperation between China and Europe in the fight against the pandemic is inevitable, so are the large cross-border shipments of vaccines. However, while discussing the...Read more