TXL launches daily rail shuttle between Rotterdam and Southern Germany

From Monday the 7th of September 2015, Rotterdam will be connected daily by rail with Southern Germany. The frequency of the Rotterdam-Bayern Express will be increased from four to five departures a week in both directions.

"We are always trying to develop our rail products," explains Klaus Niemöhlmann, Head of the TXL division Maritime. "Not only have we increased our frequency, but we have also added capacity to the trains. What’s more, we are now able to handle our trains in Rotterdam even faster and more efficiently." Mark van Andel, director of EGS: “With this daily service, we make Rotterdam even more accessible to southern Germany companies. We are convinced that the daily Rotterdam-Bayern Express will prove to be very competitive, offering our customers real added value.”

The Rotterdam-Bayern Express can accommodate both maritime and continental cargo. In Rotterdam, the train serves all major container terminals at both the Maasvlakte and in the city area. In Southern Germany, the service will call at respectively the Tricon Container Terminal in Nuremberg and the inland terminal München Riem in Munich. European Gateway Services and TX Logistik also offer pre-transport and post-transport services at both locations. Cargo which departs Rotterdam by train on day 1 is already at the doorstep of customers in Southern Germany and the north of Austria on day 3. In the other direction, a similar transit time applies to the connection with the deepsea ship.

The route via Rotterdam offers major time savings. Many deepsea shipping lines use Rotterdam as their first and last port of call in Europe. To and from Southern Germany, this results in highly favourable transit times. While the deepsea ship sails to the North German ports after Rotterdam, the container is already en route to Southern Germany on the Rotterdam-Bayern Express. This can easily reduce the journey time by two days. In the other direction, outbound cargo from Southern Germany can actually be put aboard the train later and still make the connection with the deepsea vessel. An additional advantage of the Rotterdam route is the possibility to defer the payment of VAT for import cargo until the moment the cargo is actually delivered to the customer. For the route via Northern Germany, VAT is already due immediately upon arrival in the port; this will not be reimbursed to the company until later.