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Kombiverkehr: National transport on the rise, limited growth in international transport
02/23/2018
  • A total of 958,299 truck consignments shifted from road to rail in 2017
  • Shortage of resources and effects of Rheintal closure curtail growth
  • Freight forwarding customers help to protect the climate by saving 1.1 million tonnes of CO2

(Frankfurt/Main, 23 February 2018) Kombiverkehr KG, the European market leader in intermodal transport, ended the 2017 financial year with a total of 958,299 truck consignments (one consignment corresponds to the capacity of a truck), or 1.91 million TEU, which were shifted from the roads and sea routes onto the railways. This means that 2.8 per cent fewer containers, swap bodies and semitrailers were transported compared with the previous year. Nevertheless, the demand for intermodal transport services continues unabated. This is shown primarily by developments in the individual market segments of national transport. The company increased the number of truck consignments transported within Germany in the de.NETdirekt+ network by 4,662 to a total of 207,589, which equates to a rise of 2.3 per cent. The trend in the 2017 financial year was even more positive in traffic between inland Germany and the Baltic Sea ports of Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock with onward transport by ferry to and from Scandinavia and the Baltic States. This transport segment grew by 2,536 truck consignments, or 3.3 per cent, to 78,991 truck consignments. The volume of consignments in international transport (excluding the Baltic Sea) fell to 671,719 truck consignments (-4.9 per cent) as a result of various factors.

The effects of the Rheintal closure near Rastatt during the period from mid-August to early October 2017 had a particularly negative impact on the result in bilateral transport with Switzerland and in Germany – Italy via Switzerland transport. The company recorded considerable losses in consignment volumes for well over seven weeks due to the disruption on this line and the absence of, or restrictions on, alternative routes.

This more or less coincided with a worsening of the operational situation on the parallel route Germany – Italy via Brenner. Accidents, infrastructure engineering works and the increasingly frequent and lengthy train controls in Raubling and Rosenheim due to the refugee situation meant that more trains than ever failed to run on schedule in the second half of the year. It became virtually impossible during this period to plan and provide a normal range of services in the road-rail Combined Transport sector. "External factors had a really huge impact on the improvement of train services to and from Italy, the most important market for our company with the highest volumes. At the start of the year, it was simply no longer possible to provide us with new trains and capacity increases due to the overall operational situation, which ultimately led to increasingly serious resource problems for the rail freight transport companies and terminals," said Robert Breuhahn, Managing Director of Kombiverkehr KG, commenting on the unusual developments in the Italian transport segment. "In spite of these circumstances we still achieved another gain of 1.5 per cent in traffic via Brenner, but our growth on international routes was limited even though demand for environmentally friendly intermodal services was strong among the freight forwarders."

The company also felt the effects on its range of services in other European corridors, where consignment volumes fell in some areas due to the far from satisfactory levels of service provided by various rail freight companies. The situation was exacerbated by environmental factors such as the Egon, Xavier and Herwart low-pressure systems which, while they only raged through Germany for a few days, upset train schedules for nearly a week and caused trains to be cancelled, thereby also contributing to the overall balance of consignments in 2017.

The outlook for Kombiverkehr in 2018 is positive. A significant increase in the frequency of departures in the network makes more trains available for forwarders and logistics companies on selected routes, which should result in more growth in consignments. For example, the operator responded to continuing demand for transport between the inland terminals and the Baltic Sea ports by significantly increasing the days of departure on the important west-north Duisburg – Lübeck-Skandinavienkai v.v. service. Having been upped to nine departures a week in each direction in October 2017, the frequency of train services was boosted to eleven departures a week in each direction in mid-November last year. Further capacity increases were implemented at the start of the new year on the Neuss – Wels v.v. and Köln – Verona v.v. routes.

By undertaking to transport their consignments on the climate-friendly railway, the customers of Kombiverkehr KG relieved the environment of 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 in 2017.

Kombiverkehr, press photo, free for reproduction



With a total of 286,580 truck consignments transported, Kombiverkehr KG improved the result in the National Transport (including Baltic Sea) market segment by 2.6 per cent in the 2017 financial year.

The press photo can be downloaded here.

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