Controversial Spain-France rail border crossing could reopen in 2028
The rail border crossing between Canfranc (Spain) and Bedous (France) might reopen in 2028. This is what Alain Rousset, president of the French region Nouvelle Aquitaine, said Wednesday 15 March during his visit to the...Read more
Eurotunnel’s new shuttle service reduces transit time and increases volumes
Eurotunnel is launching FIRST, a new subscription service to give priority to trucks that want to hop on the rail freight shuttle to cross the Channel Tunnel between France and the UK. Companies applying for...Read more
Nevomo and SNCF to use MagRail to boost freight capacity in France
Pioneer of maglev-inspired technology for existing railways Nevomo has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the French state railways SNCF. The companies will evaluate the benefits of MagRail within the French railway network to...Read more
MEDWAY: 45 million euros to expand into France
Portuguese rail freight operator MEDWAY is planning to expand its operation outside of the Lusitanian border. The company will in fact invest in rolling stock to deploy between Spain and France.Read more
Europorte and InVivo choose Saipol’s green fuel to transport cereals
tech tuesdaySince last week, another train can be seen on the tracks, fuelled by a plant-based biofuel. In France, the freight trains of Europorte on behalf of InVivo, a French agricultural group, will be fuelled by...Read more
New Rennes-Lille rail service coming soon
French company LaHaye Global Logistics will launch a new rail connection between the Rennes Terminal the port of Lille. The first train will depart on 13 March with three weekly roundtrips scheduled. This new connection...Read more
100 billion for rail in France until 2042, but is it enough?
France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne claimed that the French government is ready to allocate 100 billion euros for the execution of the plan presented by the Infrastructure Orientation Council (COI). The plan analyses the necessary...Read more
Is France giving up on this border crossing with Spain?
France might not participate in the financing for the modernisation of the Pau-Canfranc-Zaragoza railway, one of the lines crossing the France-Spain border, closed since 1970. No budget was allocated for this project in a leaked...Read more
French combined transport plan sees 60% traffic increase in 4 years
Industry body GNTC, SNCF-owned Rail Logistics Europe (RLE) and consultants Altermind have published a report on their development plan for French combined transport, which makes provision for traffic to increase by 60 per cent by...Read more
Rail operators in France struggle to pay their electricity bills
Electricity contracts must be subject to renegotiation immediately, says the French rail association AFRA. Many rail freight operators in France struggle with the increased electricity bills, which threaten their viability. Infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau quadrupled...Read more
A new facility for combined transport in France will be ready in 2025
A new facility for combined transport in Fleury-les-Aubrais, near Orleans, in central France, will be ready by 2025. This facility is expected to boost rail freight coming to and from the HAROPA Ports (Le Havre,...Read more
SNCF launches Rail Route Connect for massive road-to-rail shift
Seven companies with logistics sites across France joined forces with Fret SNCF to form the first national network to promote a massive shift of rail: Rail Route Connect (2RC). The association’s main objective is to...Read more
National railway strike in France is on…again
Workers of the French state railway utility SNCF are on strike. The strike started on Monday 30 January at 7 pm local time and runs until Wednesday, 1 February 6 am. It is expected to...Read more
Schneider Electric launches Eurotunnel rail service with XPO
XPO Logistics, an American provider of freight transportation services, launched a new intermodal service between France and the United Kingdom. This new service will be on behalf of Schneider Electric, a French company specialising in...Read more
Spanish association not happy with government’s rail freight strategy
The Spanish government published its Indicative Strategy for developing, maintaining, and renovating the railway infrastructure in December. However, the European Alliance Association for the development of Railway Corridors pointed out a series of deficiencies concerning...Read more
Brittany Ferries confirms wagon order for ‘rail freight motorway’ service
Brittany Ferries has confirmed an order of wagons from French manufacturer Lohr ahead of the launch of its ‘rail freight motorway’ service between Cherbourg and Bayonne in France. The service is scheduled to be launched...Read more
No access roads for Lyon to the Turin-Lyon tunnel before 2045?
New access railway lines to the Turin-Lyon tunnel from Lyon might not be ready before 2045, more than a decade after the expected commissioning of the structure in 2032. This is because the French government...Read more
France responds to European Commission probe into Fret SNCF state aid
France is ready for the formal examination procedure by the European Commission into the conditions of the financing of SNCF’s rail freight unit, Fret SNCF, dating back several years before its transformation into a subsidiary...Read more
Delta Rail will launch a new service between France and Germany
Delta Rail, a French multimodal operator and subsidiary of Modalis Group, will launch a new rail freight service between Chalon-sur-Saone, in eastern France, and Duisburg. The new service will start on 28 February. It will...Read more