Author: Marco Raimondi

Closed tunnel on Spain-France route poses problems for rail freight

Rail traffic along the Madrid-Irún line, which connects the Spanish capital to France and is part of the TEN-T Atlantic Corridor, has been halted since 8 May due to a damaged tunnel. The line was supposed to reopen on Monday 20 May, but new information says this will not happen before Saturday 25 May. This…

Closed tunnel on Spain-France route poses problems for rail freight

Rail traffic along the Madrid-Irún line, which connects the Spanish capital to France and is part of the TEN-T Atlantic Corridor, has been halted since 8 May due to a damaged tunnel. The line was supposed to reopen on Monday 20 May, but new information says this will not happen before Saturday 25 May. This…

Swiss Council asks for public funds to invest in private rail freight facilities

The Swiss Federal Council is asking for 188,8 million euros (185 million francs) for investments in private rail freight facilities, such as terminals and sidings, between 2025 and 2028. Applicants would have to commit to finance at least 40 per cent of the project they want to subsidise with these funds. The money would come…

HHLA off to a rocky start in 2024, last year’s trends continue

HHLA’s intermodal services experienced a “significant decrease in volumes” in the first quarter of 2024. Rail transport fell by 3,2 per cent, while container transport decreased by 5,5 per cent compared to the same period last year. The EBITDA in HHLA’s intermodal segment also dropped significantly in these three months, with a 21,7 per cent…

UPS and CargoBeamer expand partnership with new test service

CargoBeamer and UPS are cooperating on an intermodal service connecting Italy to Greece. The two companies ran a successful test which entailed rail transport between Domodossola and Bari, crossing Italy from north to south, and a ferry connection to Patras, in northern Greece. This is not the first test run involving UPS and CargoBeamer. In…

China to build four rolling stock production sites in Hungary

CCRC Zhuzhou Locomotive, a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned rolling stock manufacturer CCRC, signed agreements with Hungarian equity fund Acemil to build four facilities in the Magyar country. The facilities will focus on rail vehicles production and maintenance as well as professional training and research and development. This new initiative may be part of a larger…

NGOs express concerns over new Italy-China rail freight service

A new rail freight service for the import of agricultural product was recently established from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China to the Italian city of Salerno, near Naples. However, various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are saying that some of the cargo coming from the Chinese region may be the…

NGOs express concerns over new Italy-China rail freight service

A new rail freight service for the import of agricultural product was recently established from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China to the Italian city of Salerno, near Naples. However, various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are saying that some of the cargo coming from the Chinese region may be the…

‘Rail magnetic levitation can work without infrastructure upgrades’

IronLev, an Italian company specialising in magnetic levitation solutions, has recently carried out tests to apply its technology on existing railways without any need to upgrade the current infrastructure. RailFreight.com had a discussion with IronLev co-founders Adriano Girotto and Luca Cesaretti to better understand how the technology works and how it can be advantageous for…