The Belgian town of Lommel will be the host of a new glass production plant that is scheduled for opening in 2026. With the arrival of new business, new transport operations will also come to the town – more than a hundred trucks per day. To prevent that from happening, a defunct rail yard may come back to life as a transshipment hub.
Glass company Ciner Glass is investing 700 million euros in the glass plant, which will produce millions of glass bottles on a daily basis. The transport needs are significant: “We are talking, in principle, about more than a hundred trucks per day”, the company’s CEO Gohkan Sen told Belgian media.
“That is why we are hoping to use rail infrastructure. Not only for ourselves, but also for the industrial partners in the area. It would significantly limit road kilometres and CO2 emissions”, the CEO said. The company pushed for the idea, and with some success.
Export possibilities for the whole region
Rail infrastructure manager Infrabel is now conducting a feasibility study on the construction of a transshipment hub. The hub is not only to be used by Ciner Glass, but accessible to companies in the wider area as well. Once operational, the transshipment hub would “mean export possibilities for the whole region”, Sen said.
The so-called Iron Rhine, an inactive rail line, runs through the industrial park. It connects to destinations east and west, into Europe and towards the Belgian sea ports. The region, says Sen, is enthusiastic about the idea.
If the construction of the transshipment hub is really going to happen, the site would need a new building and cranes for loading and unloading. Current expectations estimate that 175 freight trains could use the site annually – taking an average of 50 trucks off the road each time. The feasibility study is supposed to be completed by the end of this year, when Infrabel will come out with cost-benefit analysis and it can make a decision on the matter.
