• Kombiverkehr KG is adding five more train departures a week in each direction, taking the existing number of services up to fifteen
• One-stop-shop method to Hallsberg and Stockholm

(Frankfurt am Main, 11 December 2019) Frankfurt-based Kombiverkehr KG is continuing the consistent expansion of its range of national services with a direct link to the Baltic Sea ferries. As of 17 February 2020, a significant increase in the frequency of departures will give forwarders and logistics companies the option of having their shipments transported on environmentally-friendly rail in the corridor between the Ruhr district and the port of Lübeck in Germany. "We will be boosting capacity on this route by 50 per cent in response to a further increase in demand. The train, which has averaged ten departures a week in each direction over the year, will operate up to three times on specific days in each direction between Lübeck and Duisburg," announced Peter Dannewitz, Sales Manager at the Frankfurt-based intermodal operator. Services will run from Duisburg from Monday to Saturday, and from Lübeck from Monday to Sunday.

It is expected that the closing time for acceptance for the newly launched trains will be 12:00 midday in Duisburg and that they will reach Lübeck before midnight on the same day. Going in the opposite direction, the additional train services will commence with departures in the evening and one at night (estimated closing time for acceptance 02:00). These trains from Lübeck will reach Duisburg late morning. The increase in the frequency of train departures to fifteen a week in each direction means that the company's customers will benefit not only from substantially faster journey times in direct services, but also from optimised transfer times in international gateway services via Duisburg. It will be possible for the first time to achieve A-B journey times for carriers and end customers in end-to-end transport via Lübeck to southern Sweden by making use of the new train services and the ferry departures at 02:30. Consignments will be ready to pick up in Malmö or Trelleborg the following morning.

Various ferry operators also run services from Skandinavienkai to and from Norway, Finland and the Baltic region. "The one-stop-shop method even allows our customers to reach the terminals in Hallsberg and Stockholm in Sweden from Duisburg, Lyons, Rotterdam and Antwerp via Lübeck by making just one booking for an end-to-end rail-ferry service or by using the fixed link," Dannewitz added. This is a crucial advantage of the wide range of services in the largest intermodal gateway network, which Kombiverkehr provides to forwarders with over 15,000 daily connections in the open system.

The service between Lübeck and Duisburg complements the existing direct train services between the Baltic Sea ports of Lübeck and Ludwigshafen KTL as well as Hamburg-Billwerder, which has links to a large number of national terminals.

Kombiverkehr, press photo, free for reproduction


A short detour at the port allows semitrailers, swap bodies and containers to be switched between rail and ferry as they arrive at the Baltic Rail Gate terminal at Skandinavienkai in Lübeck. The trains from Duisburg-Ruhrort Hafen will be loaded and unloaded at this major hub up to three times a day from 17 February 2020.


The press photo can be downloaded here.