NEWS

Demand picking up: More capacity on biggest European Combined Transport network from 1 February 2010 - Extra trains, faster connections and shorter journey times improve total running times on international routes by up to four days

With demand gradually picking up, Kombiverkehr AG is to increase the capacity of its European network, eliminate bottlenecks and slash total running times on many routes to and from southeast Europe. "There are essentially three changes, each of which alone will deliver benefits for our customers, but taken together will above all enable us to boost our efficiency once again", said Robert Breuhahn, general manager of the Frankfurt-based company, the European market leader for the combined road and rail transport of goods consignments. "At the heart is a tripling of the regular departures of our direct train to Turkey, increasing the frequency of departures on the initial section between Munich and Ljubljana to five departures a week and extending this train to Duisburg and Cologne."

Kombiverkehr is now experiencing a steady and consistent rise in demand for the direct train, only introduced last year, which connects central Europe with Turkey via the Balkan states. A second train already runs each week, depending on demand and availability. From February 2010 the Bosporus-Europe Express, developed as part of the EU's "CREAM" project, is scheduled to connect Ljubljana three times a week with the Halkali terminal 30 kilometres outside the metropolis of Istanbul.

Another optimisation that Kombiverkehr will bring is to increase the capacity of the Adra Express, the training connecting Munich and Ljubljana, from three to five weekly departures from 1 February. This will help not only users of the Turkey trains in the form of shorter journey times, but also all those freight forwarders who are continuing on the Adra Express to the Adriatic port of Koper or transporting goods to and from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia or Serbia via the Ljubljana hub.

The third improvement is the extension of the Adria Express to Duisburg and Cologne. "By having a train run five times a week in each direction, we are significantly increasing freight capacity on the heavily used sections between the key German hubs of Duisburg, Cologne and Munich", Breuhahn explained. Shipments from Rotterdam or the Ruhr region that are to be transported further south will have faster connections. It's exactly the same in the other direction. "The new production concept also enables us to control the shipments more efficiently." Loading units destined for the Balkans or Turkey are loaded in Duisburg directly onto the Adria Express which, unlike the other trains from the Rhine/Ruhr region, will head for Munich-Ost rather than the terminal in Munich-Riem. All that will happen there is that a group of wagons with local shipments will be added or uncoupled, thereby enormously relieving the Munich-Riem bottleneck. "The example underlines the benefits that our European network of logistics companies offers through the combination of direct trains and gateways: It combines the maximum possible efficiency with the greatest possible number of fast connections", Breuhahn added. "And the more volume we have in the network, the more we can send multigroup or direct trains on alternative routes off the main sections and thus increase overall capacity and efficiency still further." The improvements, which are to be implemented in February, will shorten the total running time of international transports on many routes by up to four days. To give an example, a container leaving Rotterdam on a Monday used not to arrive in Istanbul until nine days later. From February, however, the journey will take only five days.

Just how much forwarders and transport companies can help the environment by using intermodal transport compared with end-to-end road transport can be discovered free of charge at any time simply by clicking on the timetable information on the internet at www.kombiverkehr.com. A modern truck with a Euro 5 engine and carrying a 25-tonne load on the section between Munich and Istanbul, for instance, will emit 2.4 tonnes more of the harmful greenhouse gas CO₂ than if this same load had been shipped on the Kombiverkehr train. That makes the environmental impact of the rail leg of a Combined Transport shipment 76 per cent better than that of pure road transport.

Press photo, Kombiverkehr, free for reproduction

From February 2010 the Bosporus-Europe Express will arrive three times a week in the Halkali terminal near the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul.

The press photo can be downloaded here.

About Kombiverkehr:
Founded in 1969, Kombiverkehr Deutsche Gesellschaft für kombinierten Güterverkehr mbH & Co KG develops, organises and markets an international network for combined road and rail transport and is the European market leader in this segment of the rail freight sector. With over 160 direct and shuttle services, the company provides forwarders and transport companies with more than 15,000 connections throughout Europe every night. The limited partnership is owned by some 230 national and international forwarders and transport companies as well as DB Mobility Logistics AG. Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, the company shifted 1.021 million truck consignments (2.043 million TEU) from road to rail in 2008, saving the environment nearly one million tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide emissions. The 167 employees achieved sales of 432 million euros in 2008.

Contact for more information and picture material:
Kombiverkehr, Corporate Communications & Sales Support, Jan Weiser
Tel. +49 69/7 95 05-1 42, Fax +49 69/7 95 05-1 49
e-mail jweiser@kombiverkehr.de