Intermodal
November/December 2015
BULKDISTRIBUTOR
3
Stinging attack on EU rail structure
F
ew other personalities in European logistics are as trenchant in their criticism
of the EU’s railfreight market structure as Lord Berkeley.
Chairman of the UK’s Rail Freight Group and a board member of the European Rail
Freight association, Berkeley launched a scathing attack in October on the EU’s two rail
giants, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and France’s SNCF.
Having already criticised what he sees as the watering down of the EU’s 4th Railway
Package earlier this year, last month he wrote a blog in a personal capacity ahead of the
forthcoming trilogues between the EU Commission, Parliament and Council, warning of
a dire future for the continent’s rail services.
“They (ie, France and Germany) have conspired to kill much of the governance parts
of the 4th Railway Package that would bring competition and growth to the sector,” he
wrote. “Instead, they are dragging the whole sector into what could be terminal
decline. On the basis of that, if DB and SNCF fail, they will ensure that no other rail
company will succeed; the winner will be road transport.”
Berkeley claimed that a senior DB manager admitted at a conference in May that “DB
cannot survive without transferring funds from the infrastructure manager to its Railway
Undertakings”.
Of France, Berkeley asserted that: “The general rail situation in France has clearly got
worse as a result of the reintegration of SNCF and RFF (the state infrastructure manager)
into a vertically integrated monolith that does not seem to know what it is doing”.
“France and Germany have led the way to ensuring that the (EU) Transport
Council allows these crumbling monopolies to stagger on, with no transparency or
regulation on possible unfair subsidies,” he continued. “Where is the competitive
single market to which EU institutions and members states have signed up?”
Berkeley said the European Parliament could still put this right in the trilogues by
“strengthening the rules on transparency, resisting hidden financial subsidies, and
going back to the original role of the infrastructure manager with full and
independent responsibilities”.
That is what is needed to attract private investment into the rail sector and allow
it to grow, he added.
Strengthening rules on transparency is crucial to attracting private investment and more
competition, says Lord Berkeley
New shuttle links Burghausen with Rotterdam
O
ctober saw the launch of a new rail link for containers and swap bodies between
KombiTerminal Burghausen (KTB) and port of Rotterdam.
The service, by chemical logistics company DB Schenker BTT GmbH, a partner of DB Schenker Rail,
runs via the port of Köln-Niehl CTS (Container-Terminal GmbH). Additional gateway connections by
barge and rail between Cologne and the port of Rotterdam are also available.
DB Schenker says the service enables freight forwarders, shipping lines and logistics operators to link
the local industry of the Bavarian chemical triangle with the Rhine-Ruhr region and the port of
Rotterdam “quickly and reliably”, by creating a central hub which offers local transport providers fast
transport and web-based container planning at the European and global levels.
“With our new connection to international maritime traffic, our KombiTerminal in Burghausen will
be even more attractive for regional industry,” said Dr Carsten Hinne, CEO Schenker BTT GmbH.
“Especially the connection with the port of Rotterdam will open up a further possibility to be
connected to global import and export quickly, reliably and efficiently.”
“The new train connection that we are setting up together with our partners fits in perfectly with
our concept of international expansion of intermodal rail connections, thus always providing a better
connection between the regions and our international port,” added Wouter van Dijk, director logistics
at Rotterdam Port Authority. “The ancillary infrastructure and the additional services of the port of
Rotterdam make us an attractive alternative for freight forwarders and shipping companies.”
Abbey goes
intermodal
T
he migrant crisis at Calais has prompted Liverpool, UKbased Abbey Logistics Group to start multimodal
movements from Europe to the UK.
The UK-based logistics firm is deploying intermodal bulk silos
initially to transport food ingredients. Using the tank type units
will negate the possibility of “immigration intrusion”, the group
says, as well as provid