Rail-road combined transport in Czechia is growing at unprecedented rates despite the general stagnation of the rail freight sector as a whole. In general, this segment reached a 12 per cent market share in total combined transport in 2023, “which is the highest share in the Czech Republic historically”, according to the Czech Transport Research Centre (CDV).
In other words, while general rail freight services decreased by 8 per cent between 2022 and 2023, more and more semi-trailers have been loaded onto the railways. “A record number of 54,525 loaded road semi-trailers and trailers were transported by rail, and only another 100 were transported empty for operational reasons”, the CDV added.
The segment of combined transport relying the most on tail concerns ISO containers, which reached 729,047 units. However, recent market developments led to “complications in the logistics of sea containers”, said Libor Krejčí from the CDV. Moreover, there was an increase in the number of swap bodies moved by rail in the country, for a total of 9,006.
A growing market
This kind of rail freight transport services are attracting increasing interest from various parties. For example, logistics operator Arcese introduced a new connection between southern Italy and Ostrava, near the Czech border with Poland, at the end of 2022. Moreover, at the beginning of 2024, CargoBeamer, which specialises in handling semi-trailers on rail, showed its intent to build a terminal in Saxony, near the German border with Czechia.