Port of Antwerp-Bruges has expanded its rail network with three new connections linking Belgium with Switzerland, Germany and China, according to the company's release.
Since August 2025, Swiss rail operator Schweizerzug, part of Swissterminal, has been running the Widnau Express, a container service between Antwerp Gateway and Frenkendorf three times per week, and between Frenkendorf and Widnau twice per week.
From Frenkendorf, the line connects to existing Schweizerzug routes to Antwerp, Rotterdam and Genoa.
At the end of August, COSCO Shipping Lines launched a rail link between the CSP Zeebrugge Terminal and Contargo Mannheim in Germany.
The trains operate two to three times weekly in both directions, have a capacity of 80 TEU, and take about 13 hours.
From Mannheim, cargo is forwarded by truck to industrial centres in Southwest Germany, including Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Mainz.
On 27 August, the first freight train from Qingbaijiang Railway Terminal in Chengdu arrived at Port of Antwerp-Bruges. Cargo from this train continued onward to Barcelona via Kombiverkehr and to North Africa via shortsea routes.
The service, named the “Dedicated DPD of La Poste of France China-Europe Africa Train Service Chengdu-Antwerp”, is operated in partnership by Silk Road Leader, Chengdu International Rail Service Company, and DPD of La Poste France, which has a branch in Chengdu. The operators plan to make the Chengdu–Antwerp route weekly in the future.
Port of Antwerp-Bruges is a unified port authority in Belgium, created in 2022 through the merger of the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge. It operates as an independent public company under Belgian law and is one of Europe’s largest seaports by cargo volume.