The end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 will change the landscape in Swedish rail freight services. Big transport contracts are about to change hands, and Green Cargo and CFL Cargo will be the companies that give them away.
Old services are looking for new operators in Sweden. In fact, some have already found them since last weekend, with changes occurring on Sunday, 15 December. The deck shuffle concerns the North Rail Express (NRE) – the service operating between Oslo and the port of Narvik, as well as two big industrial customers: Moelven and Vida.
Change of faces
Here’s what the service reshuffling will look like: Norwegian company Onrail will take over Swedish Green Cargo’s contract for the NRE, which links Oslo and Narvik via Sweden. The NRE is one of the region’s most important services for fish products.
On the other hand, Green Cargo will also give away the transport contract with Moelven, a timber-specialised company in Sweden. Grenland Rail, an operator active in Norway and Sweden, has taken over operations. The handover for these two contracts already occurred starting 15 December.
Moreover, CFL Cargo has also handed over some services it used to haul on behalf of Real Rail. The latter used to procure train hauling for years from Green Cargo and CFL Cargo. Although no news is available concerning the services hauled by Green Cargo, it is clear that the few services procured by CFL will now be operated by Real Rail itself.
Finally, CFL Cargo will see another operational change. This case concerns another wood-specialised customer – Vida. Tågåkeriet in Bergslagen (Tågab) will take over the trains that CFL Cargo ran for Vida between different sawmill locations and two export ports starting in early 2025.