A refrigerated rail service between Valencia in Spain and Rotterdam in the Netherlands is operational since May 2019. Fred Lessing, manager of the collective shippers group Cool Rail and his team presented it yesterday in Valencia
The service is successfully operational for some weeks. Easyfresh contributes actively with some specific traffics for well reputed produce shippers and grocery retailers. After its inauguration in The Netherlands some weeks ago, it was presented yesterday Tuesday 18th June to customers and industry players in Valencia in a well organized event.
Huge market
Refrigerated food such as fruits and vegetables form a large portion of cargo moved between Spain and the north-west of Europe. Germany is the largest market, receiving 100 thousand containers from Valencia per year. Another 60 thousand containers are shipped to the UK, while 44 thousand units reach the Netherlands. Especially oranges and tangerines are moved in large volumes, making up 45, respectively 42 per cent of all refrigerated freight on this route.
A rail freight link connecting these fruit and vegetable markets has been missing, inspiring Cool Rail in the past to investigate the potential of a dedicated freight train on this corridor. Initiated by Dutch fruit and vegetable wholesaler Bakker Barendrecht and reusable packaging specialists Euro Pool System (EPS), the group of shippers and stakeholders has experimented with the service since October 2016. "The currently 4.032 trucks traveling per road every year can be substituted by 100 fully loaded round trips by train. This can be scaled up to 250 fully loaded rounds trips a year later, resulting in a CO2 reduction of seventy to ninety per cent", said Lessing.
Challenges
Three weekly round trips, which should be increased to a daily service between Valencia and Rotterdam as the demand increases, have been the starting point. "We need more shippers in order to realise a daily frequency", said Lessing.
One of the bottlenecks on the corridor is the varying maximum train length in Spain, as the network does not permit trains carrying more than 32 containers. Anyhow, combinations with Barcelona and other technical options at the French-Spanish border are in place and improving the service potential.
Final touch
Transit times are excellent and competing with road transport. All in all it is an environmentally friendly solution, saving a lot of CO2 emissions.
For more information:
Easyfresh
Email: helpdesk@easyfresh-logistics.com
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