Hupac Intermodal has introduced a three times a week connection between the Rail Service Centre Rotterdam in the Waalhaven port area and three Polish terminals: Warszawa Praga terminal, the Terminal Poznan Kobylnica and the Slawkow Euroterminal. All the trains have a capacity of 60 TEUs.
The Swiss intermodal operator has also started a new twice weekly connection for the transport of containers and swap bodies between RSC Rotterdam and the Container Terminal Dortmund in the German Ruhr area. It plans to increase this frequency to five times a week.
Hupac and its competitors are in need for more train capacity, as container volumes at the leading west European ports continue to boom.
German intermodal operator Kombiverkehr last year carried more than 1 million intermodal units, an increase of 8 percent.
More intermodal initiatives are expected during the course of this year, as a result of the opening of the new Euromax terminal at the Rotterdam Maasvlakte.
These facilities will offer in the first phase a transhipment capacity of 2.3 million TEUs per year.
Included is a rail terminal with six tracks and two rail cranes. The Euromax rail capacity can be extended to 24 tracks, as the total transhipment capacity rises to four million TEUs.