• European market leader increases volume of consignments to 985,424 truck-loads and generates sales of over 450 million euro in 2016
• Strike in France, engineering works on the rail network and two-week closure of the BASF terminal in Ludwigshafen have an impact on consignment volumes
• Above-average increase in traffic with Scandinavia, national transport stabilises
• Company welcomes master plan for rail freight transport and calls for greater commitment at international level at the same time
• Digitisation project with partners in the pipeline

(Frankfurt/Main, 29 June 2017) Frankfurt-based Kombiverkehr KG, Europe's leading provider of intermodal rail transport services, increased the volume of consignments in both national and international transport over the course of the last financial year. The books showed a total of 985,424 transported truckloads (one consignment corresponds to the capacity of a goods vehicle) or 1.97 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) in the form of swap bodies, semi-trailers and containers at the end of 2016, representing a gain of over 7,300 consignments or 0.7 per cent. "Even though protracted strike action in France, extensive engineering works on the European rail network and the two-week closure of one of the most important European terminals in Ludwigshafen had a negative impact on the volume of consignments in the 2016 financial year, with a fall of over three per cent, the growth in national and international transport shows that the market still finds intermodal services attractive. More and more forwarding companies are taking advantage of Combined Transport, which links road, rail and ship, to make the most of every opportunity to optimise their processes," managing director Robert Breuhahn pointed out to the forwarding and logistics partners attending the sharehold-ers' meeting in Frankfurt am Main. The company's 141 employees achieved sales of 450.2 million euro (-0.7 per cent)

The previous year's record result on the cross-border services in the international eu.NETdirekt+ network, including traffic with northern Europe and the Baltic states via the German Baltic Sea ports, was surpassed once again. In bilateral transport between Germany and more than 30 European countries, the Frankfurt-based company transported a total of 782,497 truckloads (1.56 million TEU), which represents an increase of 6,105 truckloads or 0.8 per cent. In particular, transport services to and from Scandinavia made an above-average contribution to this positive result. The rising demand for rail services via the fixed link and to and from the seaports of Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock led to increased forwarding volumes in this market segment, up by a substantial 27.1 per cent to 131,647 consignments. Kombiverkehr KG also recorded an increase in consignments in national transport with 202,927 truckloads, thus halting the downward trend of previous years.


More tonnage, greater transport distance, less carbon dioxide
Customers in the forwarding and logistics sector boosted the volume of freight carried on the 170 direct and shuttle trains operating daily in the Kombiverkehr network by 1.9 per cent to 23.16 million gross tonnes. The company recorded even higher growth in transport output, which increased by 4.0 per cent to 18.97 billion tonne-kilometres. Thanks to the increasing attractiveness of intermodal trains, more of which cover long distances by rail, the average distance per consignment carried rose from 803 kilometres in 2015 to 819 kilometres in the year 2016. The forwarders and carriers who used Kombiverkehr's network to transport their consignments in 2016 thus made a substantial contribution to environmental and climate protection: the consignments delivered removed 807 million vehicle kilometres from Europe’s long-distance road network, thus reducing transport-related emissions of carbon dioxide by 1.138 million tonnes.


Reversal of trend in national transport
It was possible to halt the slightly negative trend of recent years in national Combined Transport in the 2016 financial year. Forwarding volumes rose by 0.6 per cent compared with the previous year, to a total of 202,927 truckloads or 405,900 TEU. The company forwarded more than 1,200 additional truckloads compared with the previous year, which were accounted for by newly introduced routes. Kombiverkehr has offered a new train service between Hamburg-Billwerder and Nürnberg Hafen since June 2016, with five weekly departures in both directions; this has now become an established part of the national de.NETdirekt+ network. Today, Kombiverkehr provides a total of around 200 weekly direct and multi-group trains between the leading economic regions inside Germany. "We will continue to do all we can to ensure that new national services provide our customers with additional direct shipments within Germany and attractive first and final legs by rail for international trains in our gateway system. To this end, we will also campaign in future for a fair competitive environment among the different modes of transport in order to promote the attractiveness of intermodal transport," announced Breuhahn. The volume of consignments in domestic transport was negatively impacted by the two-week closure of the BASF terminal in Ludwigshafen due to an explosion near the entrance to the site. The consequences of this incident were falling volumes on all the affected routes to and from Ludwigshafen.


Wide demand brings high rate of growth in north European transport for Kombiverkehr
More and more forwarders prefer to have their trailers and tank containers transported in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner by rail or in combination with Ro-Ro ferries over the long distances between Germany and Italy on the one hand, and the north European countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland on the other.

Apart from the usual route via the Baltic Sea ports of Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock, Kombiverkehr also provides direct rail services via the Öresund Bridge. These two alternatives made it possible to significantly increase the volume of northern European transport in the 2016 financial year. At the end of December, the company recorded a total of 131,647 truckloads or 263,300 TEU, which represents a gain of 27.1 per cent.

The pace of growth in the demand for new products via the fixed link continued unabated. To keep up with market demand, therefore, more new shuttle trains between Herne in the north of the Ruhr district and Malmö in Sweden were added to the existing range of services to and from Sweden in January 2016 to cater for the requirements of a major customer. The additional service currently connects both regions five times a week in each direction and completes the journey in an impressive time of just 17 hours. Alongside this is the open train product between Köln-Eifeltor and Malmö with options for onward transport within Sweden or to and from Norway.


Italy transport via Austria still on the up
With 222 direct train services every week on the Germany – Italy/Switzerland corridor at present and a consignment volume of 415,195 shipments (830,400 TEU), south European transport remains Kombiverkehr's most important transport axis. During the last financial year the company increased the volume of consignments in this region by 0.3 per cent compared with 2015. Transport flows to and from Italy are spread across the four alpine crossings of Brenner and Tauern in Austria and Gotthard and Lötschberg in Switzerland. With 225,714 transported consignments, the Brenner route was again by far the most significant corridor for Kombiverkehr during the last financial year, followed by the Gotthard/Lötschberg route with 124,638 consignments and the Tauern line with 49,513 consignments.

With a gain of 1.3 per cent, the volume of freight transported between Germany and Italy via Austria rose for the fourth time in succession. Numerous capacity increases were introduced on existing routes during the past financial year to cater for increasing demand and to boost transport services for Italy. Kombiverkehr upped the existing frequency of services between Germany and Italy, for example, by adding ten more train departures a week. This means that the company now provides a total of 144 weekly train departures in the Brenner corridor. Services were specifically increased on the following routes: Hamburg – Verona (from three departures to five), Ludwigshafen – Verona (from six departures to eight) and between Kiel and Verona (from two weekly round trips to three in the open train system).

In contrast, transport for Italy via Switzerland was forced to accept slight losses of 2.4 per cent during the past financial year. The direct and shuttle trains have been using the level sec-tion of the new base tunnel to cut across the Gotthard Massif since December 2016. "Even though the new route allows the trains to cover the distance between Germany and Italy around 30 to 40 minutes faster, we cannot see any sustained impetus until 2021/2022, when the Gotthard corridor in northern Italy is due to be fully upgraded. This will give Kombiverkehr the chance to offer even more attractive train products in transport for Italy via Switzerland," managing director Armin Riedl explained to the partners in attendance. A new, additional train service from Duisburg Rheinhausen DKT was introduced by Kombiverkehr in March 2016, however, so the company's customers can already take advantage of more frequent services to and from Busto-Arsizio. There have been eight train departures a week in each direction between the Ruhr district and Italy via Gotthard since last year.

Kombiverkehr uses the Tauern link to handle shipments to and from Greece and Turkey. The central hub here is the seaport in Trieste, which links ferry and rail for intermodal transport. Kombiverkehr currently offers a wide range of connections to and from the European and Asian parts of Turkey via this port, which is vital to the company. As well as the Turkish ports of Ambarli, Haydarpasa, Pendik, Mersin and Cesme, customers have also been able to reach the port terminal in Alsancak near Izmir since January 2017. The new twice-weekly ferry service between Alsancak – one of the largest container ports in Turkey – and Trieste complements the intermodal services provided by Kombiverkehr.

In response to the increasing demand for services to Turkey and Greece, the frequency of train services between Cologne and Trieste was increased in October 2016. In addition to the existing services to and from Ludwigshafen and Munich, there are numerous forwarding options from Cologne in the German and international network. The service can also be used to transport hazardous goods or refrigerated trailers with a self-sufficient energy supply over the long distance to Turkey safely and efficiently. "Our Sales department for southeast Europe receives constant enquiries from Turkish customers, most of whom previously used road haulage. This gives Kombiverkehr the chance to push on with multimodal transport by rail and ferry for Turkey and Greece and to strengthen it on a sustained basis. Starting from Tuesday, therefore, we have increased the frequency of train services on existing routes to and from Trieste accordingly," announced Breuhahn during the shareholders' meeting. In addition to the transport route via Trieste to Lavrio near Athens, which has been in use since 2015, Kombiverkehr has also provided another service to Greece since November 2016. Shipments are routed through the Wels terminal in Austria to and from Sindos near Thessaloniki in northern Greece twice a week in each direction.


National strikes in France, engineering works on the Betuwe line and terminal closure in Ludwigshafen affect traffic with Spain, France and Netherlands
After six years of continuous growth in volumes, the amount of freight carried in unaccompanied Combined Transport between Germany and the countries of west and southwest Europe fell by 15.1 per cent to 127,131 consignments or around 254,300 TEU. This decrease is essentially attributable to the suspension of a maritime train product in seaport hinterland transport between the Netherlands and Germany at the beginning of the second half of 2016. Services on the Betuwe line were also adversely affected by major engineering works; single-track operation went on for several months and resulted in a full closure for two weeks in July 2016. The amount of freight carried in western Europe would have remained virtually constant without this one-off event. Whilst the volume of transport with Spain recorded slight losses over the last financial year, the amount of traffic with France rose by 2.7 per cent to 9,721 consignments (19,400 TEU). Firstly, an increase in consignments for Spain and even stronger growth in French traffic were hindered by major strikes in France, which brought transport services to a halt for nearly five weeks in May and June 2016. The second factor was the accident at the BASF plant in Ludwigshafen and the resulting two-week closure of the terminal, where most of the trains to and from Spain are processed.

In the meantime, a new connection between the Ruhr district and the Rhine-Neckar region with the Dutch province of North Brabant increased the existing range of services to and from the Netherlands.  Forwarders and carriers can choose from five weekly services in each direction to have consignments bound for the Netherlands transported from the terminals of Duisburg-Ruhrort Hafen DUSS and Ludwigshafen KTL to Moerdijk, where there are ferry services for onward shipment to and from Norway and Great Britain. The traction for the trains is provided by KombiRail Europe, a subsidiary that specialises in the Betuwe line.


Volume of transport in east and southeast European transport virtually constant
A total of 108,524 consignments (217,000 TEU) were forwarded in unaccompanied transport between Germany and east and southeast Europe during the last financial year. After a double-digit increase the preceding year, it was possible to keep volumes more or less constant in 2016 despite generally tough conditions. There was only a slight drop in volumes of 0.6 per cent on the block trains, which average 76 a week. There were some significant increases in the amount of freight for Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey and Greece at the same time, but these were unable to compensate fully for the volumes lost on the two corridors with Austria and Slovenia. The gratifying growth in volumes in the transport corridor between the Ruhr district and Poland is attributable to closer cooperation between Kombiverkehr and its partner HUPAC. A joint train product is now provided in transport for Poland, which has been running three times a week in each direction between the Duisburg DUSS terminal and Pruszkow since January 2017, stopping off in Gadki. Bundling the consignment volumes of both operators into one joint train product opens up better, regular opportunities for customers in international forwarding to send shipments by rail, which is both cost-efficient and climate-friendly, in this corridor. Furthermore, with three departures a week in each direction, customers are offered a high-quality product.


Company welcomes master plan for rail freight transport and calls for greater commitment at international level
Having spent the previous months and years holding many high-level talks with organisations and policy-makers to campaign for a fair competitive environment for rail and road haulage, Kombiverkehr KG  informed partners attending the shareholders' meeting that a significant milestone had been achieved. "Together with industry representatives, we have finally managed to persuade much of the political community – not least the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure – that something actually needs to be done for the rail freight transport sector, and especially Combined Transport, if we are to meet environmental targets and objectives, especially with regard to cutting CO2 emissions," said managing director Armin Riedl, referring to the signing of the master plan for rail freight transport by Federal Minister Alexander Dobrindt the previous Friday in Berlin. "The policy document prepared in conjunction with the ministry and the industry organisations can really improve the prospects of the rail freight transport sector in the future once again."

Among other things, Kombiverkehr KG sees the guarantee of an efficient railway infrastructure, the extensive exploitation of potential for innovation and the improvement of general transport policy frameworks as the cornerstones of the master plan. Measures planned for the immediate future include the reduction of route prices, the upgrade of key sections for 740-metre trains and the setting up of a preliminary test area for the digitisation and automation of train composition in the rail freight industry. Ad hoc measures to be continued and extended are corporate contributions made by the sector to modernise the rail freight industry. The interest of the government in pushing ahead with more research and development was particularly welcome: on this issue above all, the companies themselves are asked to invest in the railway and exert a positive influence with new ideas.

Kombiverkehr calls on the Ministry of Transport to show the same commitment within European transport policy as it does at national level. International rail freight transport companies and the users of intermodal transport often find that current regulations – for example weights, documents accompanying shipments, tax questions – are interpreted differently in many countries. Consistent regulatory frameworks should be created together with the European Commission in Brussels, as such measures can increase the attractiveness of Combined Transport.


Digitisation project with partners in the pipeline
In order to allow for the increasing digitisation of goods flows and growing calls from customers for greater transparency within the supply chain, Kombiverkehr has decided to take the lead in the joint project "Digitisation of intermodal supply chains". The idea for the project came about in the 2016 financial year and involves selected partner companies working in the rail transport, infrastructure and forwarding sectors. The project application is currently undergoing the approval procedure at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The specific goal of the mFUND "Digitisation of intermodal supply chains" project is to enable all stakeholders in the intermodal transport chain to access data that will help them to develop and introduce new, innovative and intelligent software solutions. The focus here is to give all parties access via a shared data hub to the information that accompanies the actual shipment or goes ahead of it. The transparency of the supply chain and hence the quality of intermodal services as a whole should be improved as a result.



Kombiverkehr, press photos, free for reproduction



Frankfurt-based Kombiverkehr KG, the European market leader in intermodal rail transport, increased the volume of national and international consignments over the last financial year, recording a total of 985,424 transported trailers, swap bodies and containers or 1.97 million TEU as of 31 December 2016. Northern European transport and the range of services at German Baltic Sea ports and the fixed crossing increased by 27.1 per cent, accounting for a significant portion of this result.







Limited partners, partners and employees at the shareholders' meeting of Kombiverkehr yesterday in Frankfurt am Main.