Rail freight in Poland in 2023 experienced a minor setback both in terms of volumes and performance. Compared to 2022, volumes dropped by 6.8 per cent, while tonne-kilometres performance decreased by 1.4 per cent, as the Polish Office of Rail Transport (UTK) stated. In more concrete numbers, the tonnes transported went from 248,5 to 231,6…
Category: Business
French opposition leader calls for privatisation of SNCF
Following another day of disruptive strike action earlier this week over the payment of bonuses during the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, the leader of one of France’s leading opposition political parties has called for the privatisation of SNCF. This initiative would, according to them, ensure more fair competition. In an interview with…
Low freight volumes: Russian Railways loses up to 50 billion rubles
Freight volumes on the Russian rail network keep falling. Russian Railways (RZD) likely incurred a 50 billion ruble loss due to the decline over the first months of 2024. The trend is unlikely to reverse soon. For the past seven months, freight volumes on the Russian rail network have been in decline. According to Forbes.ru,…
Switzerland joins the club of countries increasing TACs
The Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT) said that Track Access Charges (TACs) in the country will increase by 2.1 per cent as of 1 January 2025. The figure chosen by the FOT was established to be as moderate as possible, taking into account the worries expressed by the sector. For the rail freight sector…
Buckland Rail becomes a UK brand
UK holding company Buckland Rail has amalgamated its family of rail businesses under their own brand. It means a change of logo for some well-known companies. Gone will be the familiar names of WH Davis and Davis Wagon Services, and the engineering support company Yellow Rail. All three will become unified as part of the…
Shortlist for DB Schenker’s buyers to be ready next week
Deutsche Bahn (DB) has received the first confirmatory bids for the sale of its logistics arm DB Schenker. Some of the companies that presented an offer include DSV, Maersk and MSC. Morevoer, equity firms such as CVC Capital Partners and Carlyle Group confirmed their bid of around 14 billion euros. This new step comes after…
Swiss and German ministries spearhead CargoBeamer’s terminal expansion
The Swiss Federal Office for Transport (FOT) and the German Federal Railway Authority (EBA) are set to spearhead the expansion of CargoBeamer’s terminals in Domodossola (Italy) and Kaldenkirchen (Germany), respectively, with their investments. The two public entities will raise 90 million euros in total for the two projects. At the same time, the Germany-based intermodal…
‘Our situation is worse than I thought’, says PKP Cargo President
The Polish state-owned rail operator, PKP Cargo, might be nearing the end of its life due to years of mismanagement and the inability to adapt to a changing market. The current Acting President of the company, Marcin Wojewódka, said that the situation is worse than expected, with both volumes and share values dropping significantly and…
Combined transport in Europe in 2023 down by 10%
Combined transport in Europe in 2023 dropped by 10.57 per cent the number of consignments transported and by 9.39 per cent in the tonne-kilometre performance. This means that these volumes are roughly back at pre-COVID 19 levels after four years of moderate growth between 2019 and 2022. UIRR said this downward trend was caused by…