Direct Train Between Kiel And Verona Launched

[John Ashworth]

Kombiverkehr Launches First Direct Train Between Kiel And Verona

06 August 2012 Analytiqa

Trains with 1,300-tonne payload to start running on 7 October

Kombiverkehr is launching a direct train service between the Baltic Sea port of Kiel and Verona in Italy. The new direct train service gives it a significant increase in capacity for environmentally-friendly rail transport on this route, while at the same time freeing up space on other Italian trains.

Rail transport between Verona and Kiel had previously necessitated a transfer in Hamburg-Billwerder. This will no longer be the case. The new trains will start on 7 October and will initially run twice a week, with a payload capacity of 1,300 tonnes. Kombiverkehr will continue to run daily shuttle trains between Kiel and the Hamburg-Billwerder gateway terminal in order to ensure the transport of consignments to other destinations within Germany and Europe.

The launch date for the new product was deliberately chosen to be after the Brenner Pass closure has come to an end. This was firstly because Kombiverkehr did not want to exacerbate the current bottlenecks in transalpine services with additional trains. Secondly, pocket wagons for semitrailers will become available for the new service once the Brenner Pass has reopened. The additional demand at present, caused by diversions through the Tauern corridor, means that these are currently in extremely short supply. From the start, the direct train will offer space for containers, swap bodies and the semitrailers that are increasingly being used in intermodal transport.

Trains will depart Verona on Tuesdays and Saturdays and depart Kiel on Wednesdays and Sundays. Arrivals and departures in Kiel-Schwedenkai have been coordinated with ferry services to and from Göteborg-Majnabbe. Forwarders can have the entire transport, including ferry and connecting services in Sweden, handled by Kombiverkehr with just a single booking. Kombiverkehr works in partnership with ferry company Stena Line and the Italian CT operator Cemat.

A single consignment with a load weight of 25 tonnes on this train saves 1.7 tonnes of CO2 emissions compared with transport solely on a truck fitted with a modern Euro V engine. That represents an 82.0% cut in transport-related emissions compared with road transport.