The Port of Vienna and Düsseldorf will connect with three weekly roundtrips. The new service focuses on transporting non-cranable semi-trailers and was launched in cooperation with Helrom Trailer Rail.

Port of Vienna and Helrom have been working together for a year now with tests to launch the Vienna-Düsseldorf trailer rail service. The two parties will use a swivel technology owned by Helrom that is already integrated on the rail wagons. As a result, they will be able to transfer the trailers from the wagons to trucks quickly and without any extra equipment.

Since August 2020, they have been able to load more than 3,500 trailers from the Vienna Freudenau terminal and take them to Germany, said Doris Pulker-Rohrhofer, Technical Director of the Port of Vienna. “After the one-year trial operation, during which the handling process was fine-tuned, regular operations are now officially starting. An expansion of the traffic is planned for the coming months,” commented Roman Noack, CEO of Helrom.

Helrom’s non-cranable trailer loading system

The cooperation between Helrom and the port of Vienna aims to boost trailer traffic by rail to and from the port with the use of Helrom’s technology. The German company offers long-distance freight services for freight forwarders. However, it also provides its own wagons that bear a loading technology for non-cranable semi-trailers.

Loading and unloading are done horizontally without requiring cranes or large terminals with the corresponding infrastructure. Helrom’s wagons only need a long track and a paved area parallel to the track. The train wagon opens to the side, and as a result, trucks can drive the trailers in and out of it. Before the cooperation with the port of Vienna, the technology was developed and tested in Sweden, while it is important to mention that it works for all semi-trailers.

You can watch a video of how the technology works below:

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