North Sea Port maintains rail share despite persisting challenges
In a time when rail is continuously challenged in Europe, the cross-border North Sea Port with locations in Belgium and the Netherlands maintains the share of rail freight in its operations. Transportation of goods to...Read more
Emmerich-Oberhausen upgrade: traffic restricted for next six weeks
A bundle of upgrades is about to start on the Emmerich-Oberhausen railway line, in northwestern Germany. This line is a key section of the Rhine-Alpine Corridor, connecting Germany to the Arnhem, in the Netherlands. The...Read more
New funds for ERTMS implementation in the Netherlands, but is it enough?
The European Commission (EC) has amended the Dutch scheme to implement ERTMS on with an additional injection of 21 million euros. With these new funds, the current budget for this initiative is 67 million euros,...Read more
Rhine-Alpine Corridor: what to expect with the coming upgrades
analysisThe Rhine-Alpine Corridor is one of the backbones of the European Union when it comes to transportation services. This is especially true for rail freight since the corridor connects two of the largest European ports,...Read more
Dutch rail freight sector will not miss resigned government
The Dutch government coalition led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned at the beginning of July. Many industry players in the Netherlands voiced their disapproval of how the rail freight industry was managed throughout the...Read more
CMA CGM levels up Rotterdam-Duisburg rail connections
The Duisburg Express Rail Shuttle offered by shipping giant CMA CGM just got an upgrade. From July on, the service runs three weekly roundtrips connecting two major trade and economic centres, but also providing access...Read more
‘The Dutch rail freight sector is going to crumble’, says rail freight association
RailGood, the main rail freight association in the Netherlands, sent a letter to the country’s State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW), Vivianne Heijnen, with three demands to facilitate the shift from road to...Read more
Dutch rail accident: the construction crane was on track too early
UPDATEThe cause of the tragic accident that occurred in the Netherlands has been identified. As Dutch infrastructure manager ProRail said, the BAM construction crane involved in the fatal accident was on the tracks earlier than...Read more
Italian waste in the Netherlands via rail: Switzerland is opposed too
The recently launched initiative of shipping waste from Rome to Amsterdam via rail keeps encountering criticism. This time, Swiss MP Bruno Storni pointed out that the new service does not benefit Switzerland but, on the...Read more
VTG deploys choco-train to transport cocoa beans for Lindt
Swiss chocolate maker Lindt & Sprungli will receive cocoa beans coming from Amsterdam by rail from now on. The initiative is made possible by VTG, which converted some of its regular hopper wagons to enable...Read more
Dutch rail accident: ProRail says the freight train was on the right track
Accident updateThe dynamic of the tragic accident that shook the Netherlands on the night of Tuesday, 4 April, is still quite unclear. What is known so far is that the DB Cargo Nederland convoy was the...Read more
New Rome-Amsterdam rail service for the sake of waste management
AMA, the company operating garbage collection in Rome, and the Amsterdam Waste Energy Company (AEB) have found an agreement to ship household waste from the Italian capital to the Dutch one. The new deal entails...Read more
ProRail and Infrabel to improve rail infrastructure at the North Sea Port
ProRail and Infrabel, the Dutch and Belgian rail infrastructure managers will further collaborate with North Sea Port to increase rail freight between the two countries and start a follow-up study this year. The cooperation aims...Read more
The Rotterdam-Swissterminal connection became direct to avoid German network nuisance
Since early January 2023, the rail connection between the port of Rotterdam and Frenkendorf (Basel) and Niederglatt (Zürich) has become direct without passing through Neuss in Germany. The service is offered by Schweizerzug, part of...Read more
China-Europe trains in 2022: east-west imbalance and drops in volume
It has become an indisputable fact that the freight volume of railway operations between China and Europe has plummeted in 2022, but how steep was the decline? A look at the recent data of UTLC...Read more
Hupac’s Rotterdam-Mannheim connection back on track with LTE
At the end of 2022, Hupac temporarily interrupted its rail freight services between the Rail Service Centre (RSC) in Rotterdam and the Contargo terminal in Mannheim. However, in a little over a month, the service...Read more
First freight service connecting Zhejiang province to the Netherlands
The first freight train linking the Chinese province of Zhejiang with the Netherlands is underway. The service will have freight trains departing from Jinhua with Venlo as its final destination.Read more
Bridge in port of Rotterdam to reopen double track, but not in strong wind
It is again possible to travel with two trains at the same time over the Suurhoff Bridge to the Maasvlakte. Trains can now safely cross the bridge, even with winds up to 44 km/h (wind...Read more
Rail freight in Rotterdam port disturbed by emergency maintenance
Dutch infrastructure manager ProRail limited rail freight operations on the port of Rotterdam’s harbour line on Tuesday, 19 April, late afternoon. Most disturbances occurred at the Maasvlakte sidings. Emergency repairs needed to be carried out...Read more