Lahaye Global Logistics is a French family-owned road haulage and logistics company based in Brittany. Railfreight.com spoke to Bastien Thirion, Lahaye’s director of rail freight, about how their Rennes-Lille service has performed over the past 18 months, what the response from the market has been and whether the company is now looking to launch new intermodal routes.
Thirion began by revealing that it has been hard going convincing shippers and road hauliers to use the Rennes-Lille combi service. It was launched in 2023, covering a distance of around 570 kilometres. It operates three weekly round trips on the route, with traction provided by Captrain France.
The service is pitched largely at ocean freight shippers in Brittany and the wider western France region with the inland port of Lille providing connections to Northern Europe seaports such as Dunkirk, Zeebrugge, Antwerp, and Rotterdam. But it is also catering for demand for goods bound for and originating in the region around Lille.
Combatting ‘all-road’ mindset’
“While there are shippers who are committed to modal shift as part of a corporate strategy in support of sustainable transport solutions, there are others, in the majority, for whom the switch to train-borne freight amounts to a radical step, a real change from the all-road mindset they’ve adopted to for so long, while at the same time a novelty attracting their curiosity,” he said.
“And for ourselves, at Lahaye, the task of marketing a full train has been a new and challenging experience and we have not been helped by current market conditions.” With loads heavily in favour of ex-Rennes freight in the launch phase, the service is now posting load factors of around 50% in both directions and Thirion remains hopeful there is scope to increase the frequency of the service to five round trips per week at some point.
The service transports a broad range of consumer and industrial goods – foodstuffs (ambient and controlled temperature), construction materials, joinery fittings and dangerous goods. Large shipper customers include Sodiaal (dairy products), Leroy Merlin, the DIY retail chain and Nestlé Purina Petcare.
One of the main components of ex-Lille traffic are large volumes of Heineken brand beers. The service probably accounts for around 5% of the total freight flows between Rennes and Lille, an indication of how marginal combi transport currently is this route but also highlighting the vast potential that exists for goods to take the train, Thirion noted.
Expanding routes
Last month, Lahaye’s subsidiary, Be Modal, teamed up with MGE Intermodal, to launch a weekly round-trip service for swap bodies to Blainville-sur-l’Eau, situated near Nancy, in eastern France. Traction is provided by Fret SNCF. As for further expansion in Lahaye’s combi transport offering, the company is looking to operate up to four trains a day from Rennes by 2030, Thirion explained. “We’re getting a good number of enquiries from shippers interested in shipping goods to and from Le Havre, France’s biggest container port while another possibility is a route to south-east France.”
Complementarity of modes
Thirion underlined that for combi transport to prosper there needs to be a wider recognition that road and rail freight complement each other to offer end-to-end solutions to their customers. “Combined transport makes the best possible use of human resources, assigning truck drivers to where they are most needed – first and last mile – with rail taking care of long distances. This will help to offset the projected shortage of truck drivers in the years ahead.”
Public aid essential
However, there are potential obstacles ahead. France’s alarming budget deficit and the need to rein in public spending is fuelling uncertainty as to whether the government will honour the financial commitments it has already made to combined transport in the coming years. The French authorities have drawn up a road map for rail freight with ambitious targets – doubling its share of the freight transport market by 2030-2035 and tripling volumes of combined transport (rail and river).
This will require the development of new infrastructure, as existing terminals are inadequate. Thirion observed. “The public sector is essential in the funding of such provision and its level of support going forward will depend on political choices in terms of energy transition and the fight against climate change.”
He said the aim is to make rail freight and combi transport financially sustainable in the long term without the need for subsidies. “A key element in achieving this will be the pooling of combined transport volumes on a greater scale than at present, enabling a reduction in costs and an increase in competitiveness in relation to road haulage.”
