Rail Link News

Saudi Arabia’s Ras Al-Khair Special Economic Zone (SEZ) said it is seeking local and foreign investors to help boost the Kingdom’s maritime infrastructure.With an initial area of 20 square kilometers, Ras Al-Khair SEZ, operated by the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, is an expanding zone with two focus areas, The King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services, and the Offshore Cluster supply chain. The SEZ is located next to Ras Al-Khair Port, the Kingdom’s newest industrial port.Ahmed M.

The intermodal service provider European Gateway Services (EGS) offers network of connections between all deepsea terminals Maasvlakte Rotterdam with Nuremberg in Netharlands.The Rotterdam - Nuremberg rail shuttle is now already calling at all the deepsea terminals at the Maasvlakte (1 and 2).Three times a week, EGS provides a rail connection between Rotterdam and Nuremberg in the state of Bavaria and vice versa. In view of the success of this connection and an increase in the number of requests, RWG will also be directly served as of the 1st of February.By doing so, EGS is responding to the wishes of shippers, forwarders and shipping companies…

A Finnish company said on Thursday it planned to develop a railway connection between north Finland and Norway's Kirkenes port to link with potential Arctic shipping routes at an estimated cost of between 3-5 billion euros ($3.4-5.6 billion).Global warming has reduced ice coverage in the Arctic, opening up the possibility of new and shorter shipping lanes between north Europe and Asia, though control of routes is disputed.Finland's Finest Bay Area Development said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway's Sør-Varanger Utvikling to investigate how to build a railway and its impact on the environment, society and the economy."An Arctic railway would connect Finland to the Northeast Passage," Kustaa Valtonen, a director at Finest Bay Area Development, said in a statement.

Singapore-headquartered international petroleum storage and logistics provider Global Petro Storage (GPS) has entered into an agreement with the Port of Amsterdam to develop a railcar connection on land adjacent to GPS' existing 11-tank gasoline and bioguel storage and blending facility.GPS intends to develop a rail connection to the public network and to points across Europe that will increase its efficiency and offerings to clients.Port of Amsterdam endorses the importance of good rail connections to and from the Amsterdam port region. Transport by rail is safe and sustainable. This development fits perfectly in the strategy of Port of Amsterdam.Peter Vucins, Director of EMEA at GPS, said the expansion will enable GPS to capture future opportunities.

UK-based construction services provider S. Walsh & Sons has ordered a Multi Cat 1908 from Damen Shipyards Group. After finalizing a number of modifications, Damen will deliver the 19-meter long vessel ten weeks after receiving the order.Part of the GRS Group, S. Walsh & Sons is London’s premier construction partners, delivering end-to-end materials handling services to the UK civil engineering and construction industries. This comprises excavation, freight (marine, rail and road), materials processing, environmental management, and land remediation.

Contship Italia Group has been pulling all the stops to increase its intermodal offering during the past months.Italy’s leading service provider for integrated global supply chains said that its Rail Hub Milano (RHM) and its gateway ports La Spezia and Ravenna serve as backbone of the Group’s growing intermodal network.La Spezia is geographically located within a range of 320 km from the key economic regions in Italy, accounting for over 47% of the total Italian GDP. RHM is located in Melzo, just outside the city of Milan at the heart of consumer and industrial regions. Ravenna is the natural gateway for East Med flows exchanged via the Adriatic Sea, the Italian container terminal operator said.This year has seen numerous service additions from RHM to various locations across Europe.

Middlesbrough, UK headquartered PD Ports has launched a second rail service connecting Teesport direct with Scotland opening up further opportunities to connect global importers and exporters with the north of the UK.The new service, operated by DB Cargo, will run five days a week from the quayside at Teesport to PD Stirling Terminal at Mossend in Glasgow. The timings of the service operate in direct connection with the P&O Ferries service calling daily at Teesport from Zeebrugge and Rotterdam; providing a vital connection for shippers, shipping lines and forwarders looking for frequent, flexible and efficient routes to market.Having launched the first Scottish rail connection from Teesport in August 2015…

European multimodal company Samskip Multimodal has launched Netherlands-Italy rail service that would bring multimodal benefits to Amsterdam.Officially launched on October 17, the connection sees trains depart from Melzo east of Milan three times a week, to be ready for unloading along 750m intermodal rail tracks inside TMA Logistics' Holland Cargo Terminal (HCT), Amsterdam 24 hours later.As well as avoiding the driver delays increasingly affecting European road transport, arrivals in Amsterdam coincide with Samskip shortsea departures to Hull, creating a seamless multimodal option to minimise post-Brexit border control issues.The new rail link is in addition to six times weekly train services connecting Melzo and Rotterdam…

The Port of Hamburg and Metrans Group are intensifying their links with Lithuanian Railways. Axel Mattern, Joint CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing, and Egidijus Lazauskas, Deputy Director-General and Director Freight Traffic for Lithuanian Railways, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Vilnius to strengthen cooperation on the routes to and from the Port of Hamburg.In addition, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG - HHLA’s intermodal subsidiary Metrans, and Lithuanian Railways signed a Letter of Intent to promote and improve cross-border freight flows.For years, the Lithuanian economy has been experiencing a tremendous upswing. In the first quarter of 2018…

The French government continues to support Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri's takeover of STX France, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday, but cautioned against hastening a related defense naval merger.Speaking in Rome after a meeting with the Italian government, he told journalists France had not changed its position on the deal, quelling concerns the takeover could be hampered by tenser relations between Paris and Italy's new anti-establishment government.However, he warned against hastening a merger between Fincantieri and French military shipyards operator Naval Group which ha

PSA International through its subsidiary has acquired 60 per cent of Ashcroft Terminal (AT) , an inland port facility about 300km east of the Port of Vancouver in western Canada, making its first foray into Canada.AT is an inland port facility located approximately 300 kilometres east of the Port of Vancouver (POV).Comprising 320 acres of free-hold industrial land, it is the only major privately-owned industrial property in Canada where both Class 1 railroad lines – including Canadian National (CN) Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway – run through, transporting import and export cargoes to and from the POV, across Canada and as far as Chicago and other North American markets.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, and Navis, part of Kalmar Business Area within Cargotec, have been awarded the contract to supply a state-of-the-art, fully automated intermodal terminal solution for Qube's Moorebank Logistics Park (MLP) in south-western Sydney. The order, valued at approximately EUR 80 million, includes the supply of the OneTerminal solution comprising Kalmar's automated train handling, automated yard crane and automated horizontal transportation equipment and the Navis N4 terminal operating system (TOS). It was booked into Cargotec's 2018 second quarter order intake. The manual operations at the Moorebank facility are due to commence in Q1 of 2019.

Bulgaria and Greece agreed to expand Multimodal Freight Corridor Between Black Sea, Aegen Sea and Dunabe. Bulgarian Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Ivaylo Moskovski and Greek Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Christos Spirtzis have agreed to extend the multimodal transport corridor between the two countries connecting the ports of Varna, Burgas, Kavala and Alexandroupoli. The Greek part accepted Bulgaria’s proposal to include a connection with the port of Ruse in the joint project. This will result in a multimodal corridor servicing road, rail, sea and river transport, as well as a shortcut to the countries along the Danube.

Saipem has teamed up with Italy's state railways to bid for work on a Russian high-speed train project as the Italian oil engineering and contracting firm seeks new business to offset an ongoing slump in the energy industry. Oil service groups like Saipem have been hit by a sharp fall in oil prices since mid-2014 that has led energy majors to cut billions of dollars in costs and delay investments. Oil and gas exploration and development firms spent just 400 billion euros ($436 billion) on projects last year compared to 700 billion euros in 2014, according to Saipem CEO Stefano Cao. "We've signed a memo of understanding with Ferrovie dello Stato (Italy railways) to make a joint bid for a part of the Moscow-Kazan project," Cao told shareholders at a meeting on Friday.

On behalf of its Board of Directors, Seaspan ULC (Seaspan) announced today that long-serving Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jonathan Whitworth, will be retiring at the end of 2017. Jonathan announced to the Board in 2016 his timeline to retirement. A search for his successor immediately commenced and Seaspan is also pleased to announce that Frank Butzelaar, President and CEO of a related company, Southern Rail Link (SRY), has been identified as Jonathan’s permanent replacement effective April 3, 2017. Frank’s transition will commence on March 3 and he will continue to work closely with Jonathan throughout 2017 to ensure a smooth handover.

The opening of a new freight service to Rotterdam is a welcome development, presenting further opportunities for Swedish industry. The company behind the new service is the ro-ro* carrier CLdN, whose vessels will call at the Port of Gothenburg twice a week. A new freight service has been introduced between Gothenburg and the continent, operated by Luxembourg-based ro-ro company CLdN. The company’s vessels will depart twice weekly from Logent Ports and Terminals at the Port of Gothenburg, bound for Rotterdam. “Rotterdam is a highly important freight hub for many Swedish import and export companies. A further alternative means of reaching Rotterdam is now available…

Russia and Iran plan railway link through Azerbaijan that would aim to grab a share of the cargo now being shipped through the Suez Canal, reports Tasnim. Russia’s transport minister, Maxim Sokolovm, said Tehran and Moscow are considering establishing a rail link that would foster trade connectivity through a less trodden path than the Suez Canal. The International North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), a multi-model route to link India and the Middle East to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe, is being nurtured for significantly reducing costs and travel time and boosting trade. “If the rail link to Iran is built, it can take some share of the cargo that’s being transported via Suez,” Sokolov said in an interview on Monday, Bloomberg reported.

The State Government of Odisha will partner the Ministry of Shipping for taking ahead the ‘port-led development’ agenda under Sagarmala, the flagship program of the Ministry. The State Government has confirmed 10% equity participation in the Special Purpose Venture (SPV) of Indian Port Rail Corporation Ltd (IPRCL) that will be formed for development of a heavy haul rail corridor from Salegaon to Paradip port. This initiative will strengthen supply-side connects from mine to port and will boost coastal movement of 140 MTPA of coal, as envisioned in Sagarmala National Perspective Plan. The rail link will serve as the last mile connectivity to transport bulk cargo of thermal coal from the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL)…

The board of  Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India’s biggest container port, has approved Rs 2000 crore ($301 mln) dredging operation of the channel between Bombay Port Trust  (BPT) and its own end to facilitate bigger ships docking/berthing at the port premises. Currently, the port with a draft of 14 metres (tidal) is capable of receiving ships that can carry 11,000 containers and on April 1, a ship with 13,900 containers will call on the port reflecting the greater draft capacity. The new proposal is to increase the depth to 15 meter. JNPT deputy chairman, Neeraj Bansal said that a cabinet nod will be required post work order, the channel deepening work will take couple of months. It is expected to be complete by the end of 2016-17 fiscal or beginning of 2017-2018.

The port of Antwerp is set to achieve a freight volume of more than 200 million tonnes for the first time ever in 2015. When it comes to containers Antwerp is performing extremely well this year: with expected growth of almost 8% it will easily pass the milestone of 9 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units, i.e. standard containers) for the first time in its history. About half of the container volume is currently handled in the port area on the Right bank of the Scheldt, but once the Swiss shipping company MSC transfers its operations to the Deurganck dock then the Left bank will inevitably become the main focus of container handling in Antwerp.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Delta Air Lines are set to overhaul New York’s notoriously outdated and publically criticized LaGuardia Airport, replacing four separate terminals with a single, connected one that will include a ferry terminal. The first phase of the $4 billion construction project, announced Monday by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, is scheduled to break ground in early 2016 pending Port Authority’s approval.

DFDS Seaways Calais-Dover ferry service, suspended by a workers' blockade of Calais port during the weekend, will resume on Tuesday morning, Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said after talks with the parties involved. Ferry workers, industry executives, the Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel and the French government are due to reconvene later this week for further talks to settle the labour dispute after breaking up without agreement on Monday, Vidalies said in a statement.

The Port of Antwerp and duisport are intensifying their cooperation as the Port of Antwerp will participate in the existing rail shuttle service connecting the two ports. The direct rail connection from Duisburg to Antwerp was set up by the duisport Group in 2006 under difficult competitive conditions with regard to road and inland waterway transport. The decision by the Port of Antwerp to participate in the rail link underlines the commitment of both ports to further develop this important European logistic corridor. Since the beginning of this year duisport agency GmbH (dpa), a subsidiary of Duisburger Hafen AG, has offered a direct daily departure by rail to Duisburg from a deepsea quay (Q1700) in the Port of Antwerp.