French quarry operator Carrières de l’Ouest, a major user of rail freight to move its aggregate products, has diversified into third-party services. The French company is undertaking this initiative by developing new containers suitable for the transport of other products including wood, plastics, waste, scrap metal or any non-liquid goods.
In recent years, the group has operated a ’double’ rail freight system transporting aggregates from its quarries in Voutré and Le Mans in western France to the Greater Paris region and returning with excavated material to be used as landfill. To support the service, named Voutré-Double Fret, Les Carrières de l’Ouest has developed open-top containers suitable for rail and road transport.
Last year, Les Carrières de l’Ouest transported 850,000 tonnes of aggregates on outbound journeys and 150,000 tonnes of landfill on inbound legs, using the ‘double’ rail freight system. Traction is provided by SNCF subsidiary, Captrain France. “In 2024, we expect to maintain these tonnages while in 2025 we want to grow our business and are expecting a 15% increase in outbound and inbound traffic,” President and CEO, Thomas Dupuy d’Angeac, told Railfreight.com in an interview.
While the ‘double’ rail freight system is proving its worth for Les Carrières de l’Ouest’s own business, the group is now focused on extending the concept to third parties with the setting up of a dedicated unit – Cinérites Transport et Logistique. Earlier this year, work began on installing infrastructure that would allow the Voutré hub to handle several trains at a time with investment costs estimated at €2 million. Initial plans for this year had focused on Cinérites transporting up to 200 containers on behalf of other companies and expanding routes to include round trips been Nantes, its port of St Nazaire and Paris.
A new service planned for 2025
“However, we are not certain that we will achieve this volume of third-party traffic in the current year, but we are receiving more and more inquiries for new transport projects to our existing destinations (western France, to the Greater Paris region). As far as new ones are concerned, we carried out a test in June at Gennevilliers, Paris’ largest river port, with terminal operator Paris Terminal, which was very positive. We expect to introduce a weekly service from 2025. We are also continuing our discussions for a Le Mans-Nantes service too,” Dupuy d’Angeac revealed.
Adapting containers to diversify cargo portfolio
Meanwhile, Cinérites is eyeing the transport of a greater range of products on behalf of third parties. “Our first containers were designed for maximum efficiency in the transport of aggregates and excavated material: open-top 20-foot tippers with mine-type hatches,” he explained.
As the containers were produced, they were adapted to provide greater flexibility. The latest ones are 20-foot tippable open tops, equipped with full-height doors and ampliroll handling systems. These containers can be used to transport wood, plastics, waste, scrap metal or any non-liquid goods.
“Voutré Double-Fret’s trains also transport containers belonging to third parties. Our 40-foot and 60-foot wagons enable us to load all types of container,” Dupuy d’Angeac added. Carrières de l’Ouest, whose origins date back to the 19th century, posted a 2023 turnover of 55 million euros.
