Amazon onboards Mercitalia trains between Italy-Germany

Amazon signed an agreement with the Italian state-owned rail freight group Mercitalia. The contract envisioned the rail transportation of goods between Amazon’s distribution centres in Italy and Germany. The two routes selected start are Pomezia-Duisburg and Verona-Herne. The e-commerce giant has distribution centres in all four locations involved in the initiative. For the Pomezia-Duisburg itinerary,…

CMA CGM and GTS Rail go international with new joint venture

French shipping giant CMA CGM and Italian rail freight operator GTS Rail are establishing a new joint venture (JV) called European Container Network to take their collaboration to an international level. The two companies are already cooperating in Italy, especially from the port of Genoa. With this new initiative, GTS Rail aims to expand its…

ScanMed corridor sees 2024 rebound

The Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor (ScanMed) is experiencing a rebound in volume and performance in 2024. The infrastructure managers (IMs) of the involved countries attribute the rebound primarily to completion of works along the corridor. ScanMed saw route sales along the corridor grow until 2021. By 2023, sales had more than halved. The IMs’ annual report now…

Russian Railways’ revenue grows to 3 trillion rubles in 2023

Russian Railways’ (RZD) revenue has grown to 3 trillion rubles (30 billion euros) in 2023. This is an increase of 16 per cent. The growth in revenue is mostly driven by higher income from freight transportation and track access charges. RZD’s head presented last year’s financial data at a meeting with Russia’s transport ministry on…

Five French road hauliers to drive modal shift to rail in Western France

Several road haulage and logistics operators in Western France’s Pays de la Loire region have joined forces to drive a modal shift to rail and create a combined transport terminal in the coming years. Ageneau Group, Transports Thébault, TC-Transports, Immo-Ouest Groupe OPAL and Combronde, together with public sector support from the Maine-et-Loire Chamber of Commerce…

RCG launches new connections to Germany and Turkey via Romania

Austrian rail freight operator Rail Cargo Group recently launched two new connections from Munich, in southern Germany, and from Tekirdag, in northwestern Turkey. The centre of this initiative is Curtici, in western Romania, as the two new services are Munich-Curtici and Curtici-Tekirdag. In other words, Curtici becomes the RCG gateway to connect Turkey and Germany.…

First indicative offers for DB Schenker are in

The sale of DB Schenker, the logistics arm of Deutsche Bahn (DB), seems to have entered a new phase. The deadline for submitting indicative, non-binding offers was Tuesday, 26 March, and at least seven interested parties bade. The amount of the offers has not been shared yet, but the value of the company is set…

Ukrainian iron ore exports through Polish border crossing up by 43%

Ukraine’s iron ore exports through the Polish Izov-Hrubieszów border crossing have grown by 43 per cent in March. Ukrainian Railways has observed a growing trend throughout 2024. Other types of goods saw their volumes decrease. According to Ukrainian Railways, the 43 per cent growth in iron ore exports amounts to an additional 63,7 wagons on…

MSC acquires French forwarder extending Eurasian rail network

MSC is officially ready to acquire the majority shares of French freight forwarder Clasquin. The two parties have agreed on the specifics of the transfer and will soon proceed to the merger of operations. MSC subsidiary SAS Shipping Agencies Services Sàrl will carry out the acquisition, which is expected to result in the extension of…