ECT has added its container terminals TCT Venlo, DeCeTe Duisburg, TCT Belgium (Willebroek) and MCT Moerdijk to the InlandLinks network. The network presently comprises 80 terminals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria and Italy.
The four inland terminals serve as extended gates for ECT’s deepsea terminals in Rotterdam and are part of the extensive synchromodal network operated by ECT subsidiary European Gateway Services (link is external). The terminals are linked via high-frequency rail and/or inland shipping connections to deepsea terminals in Rotterdam and Antwerp. European Gateway Services itself is also part of the InlandLinks network in its role as operator.
The terminals in Venlo and Duisburg are trimodal facilities, while Moerdijk and Willebroek are bimodal. The terminals offer a combined total of 2 kilometres of quay and 1,400 metres of track, and together cover a surface area of some 57 ha.
InlandLinks is the online platform for container terminals in the hinterland that offer intermodal (rail and/or inland shipping) services to and from Rotterdam. The platform presents the participating terminals on the basis of objective and comparable criteria. These criteria are checked annually to ensure that they are correct. InlandLinks allows users to identify the general options and specific advantages offered by Rotterdam-related intermodal transport. In addition, the platform contributes to the increase in intermodal transport via inland shipping and rail of container flows – the volume of which is expected to triple over the next 25 years. InlandLinks, an initiative of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, was launched two years ago in partnership with the Association of Dutch Inland Terminal Operators (VITO).
Rotterdam expects the total volume of container shipments to triple over the next 25 years. The port bases this forecast on the projected growth in global trade, its favourable geographical situation, and the increase in the number of very large container ships with a capacity of some 20,000 units. Of the total volume of some 30 million TEU put through Rotterdam in 2035, 12 million TEU are expected to be shipped by smaller vessels from Rotterdam to other European ports and vice versa. Around 18 million TEU will be transported to and from the hinterland via intermodal transport. InlandLinks is intended to highlight better and more sustainable connections for the latter flow.