The so-called shunting agreement is “essential to provide clarity and certainty to all parties involved during the execution of works along the entire port railway”, the Port of Rotterdam says. It defines the procedures for transferring trains administratively and physically, and which responsibilities apply to both contractors and clients.

Pilot

The project ‘Track Together’ will initially run for seven months in a pilot format. If proven successful, it will continue on a structural basis. Its goal is to prevent train cancellations and long delays. Terminals will benefit, according to the port, because their tracks can also be freed up for other planned trains.

“Track Together strengthens cooperation between rail operators in the Port of Rotterdam. By sharing information more effectively, the platform contributes to more efficient operations and a more reliable rail network for all parties involved”, commented Jordy Hermes, Product Design Specialist at LTE.

The Hamburg port achieved a 7.3% growth in the container segment in 2025 – much more than Rotterdam (+3.1%) and Antwerp (+0.7%).

TEU versus tonnes

Container growth in Hamburg distinguishes itself even more from Rotterdam when taking volumes into consideration. Yes, there was growth in Rotterdam in terms of TEU, but the tonnage metric fell by 0.2%. “More import containers, lower export volumes due to the weakened European competitiveness, and the decline in transhipment led to increased transhipment of empty containers”, says the Rotterdam port.

By contrast, Hamburg achieved growth in tonnages too – by no less than 4.6%. While the port did not disclose its container tonnage figure for 2025, it likely sits at around 81 million tonnes. Antwerp and Rotterdam still lead the way in Europe with 149.5 and 133.2 million tonnes respectively.

Where does Hamburg’s growth come from? It was Asian exporters in particular that reached Hamburg more and more often. At the same time, policymakers in the White House severely damaged the transatlantic business with their tariffs.

Companies are now working to clear their backlogs. The success of that depends on border crossing capacity and coordination between the German and Dutch infrastructure managers, operational director of HUPAC Mark Jansen says.

The past two days

Whereas on 6 January some train traffic was possible in the Rotterdam port area, by the next day, all freight trains had halted operations, infrastructure manager ProRail reported. The problems have to do with mass failures of switches. They froze or the large amounts of snow got them stuck in one position.

The winter problems were concentrated around the Botlek and Waalhaven ports, as well as rail yard Kijfhoek. The important hinterland Betuwe line to Germany was also limited to a single track for some time.

For this operation, the Dutch government will provide 158 million euros, while the municipality and port of Rotterdam will pitch in with another 169 million euros. Other than moving the yard, the funds will be used for the electrification of the ‘distri triangle’ and the outer contour, the modification of the C2 bend and the realization of two drive-through tracks.

Further expansion possibilities

The future yard in the Maasvlakte area has been under construction since last October and it will be put into operation in 2027. It will feature six bundle tracks, increasing the maximum train length allowed from 600 to 740 metres, as European standards dictate. On top of this, another yard will be built between 2030 and 2035 with the possibility for further expansion in the 2040-2050 period, if demand requires it.

Besides that, the Netherlands expects container traffic to grow even more in the coming years. “The import and export of containers is crucial for businesses and consumers in both the Netherlands and Europe, and thus for European prosperity”, explains ProRail. “We need to be able to efficiently handle this ever-increasing flow of containers to and from the hinterland.”

EMZ will facilitate 740-metre trains, more than the current standard length of 600 metres. That allows for fewer train movements and therefore lower transportation costs, as well as fewer emissions.

Neither APM Terminals nor Rotterdam World Gateway were available for comment, so it remains unclear what the immediate impact is on rail freight operations. Geef Tegengas says that they are only blocking the road entrances, but more protests are planned during the weekend.

The group refused to share specific plans for the coming days, but earlier said that “the protest takes place ahead of the mass blockade ‘Rotterdam Block Party: No Bombs, Barrels and Bullshit’, where hundreds of people will halt the port and its deadly operations. The protests are part of an international series of protests against the logistics empire – infrastructure will be blocked in all of Europe this weekend.”

Investigations in the terminals

Spokesperson Sara van Veen says that the Rotterdam municipality and the port authority refuse to be transparent about the goods moving through the port. “A motion calling on the council to investigate the human rights violations in which the port is involved has still not been implemented after months. That is why we are forced to conduct our own investigation and expose the scandals in the port.”

Some of the activists have taken matters into their own hands and have gone into the terminals to find out what is being transported. “The decision to block APM and RWG is not random. Maersk and MSC use these terminals to handle the weapon transports to Israel. Without weapons, no genocide”, they say.

The six rail blockades between April and June led to hundreds of thousands of euros in financial damages. Dozens of trains were stuck, which on April 24 led to 150,000 euros in damages per hour (the protest lasted for 3.5 hours in total).

Back on the tracks

After a summer hiatus, climate activism is back on the Rotterdam railways. On Sunday 5 October, XR and two other groups occupied the railway to protest coal transportation. This time around, the protest was not so much about just “blocking”, but also “undermining”: the activists sought to remove the ballast from underneath the tracks, which would mean that trains would no longer be able to safely run there.

“After inspection by the maintenance contractor, the damage turned out to be greater than expected”, a spokesperson of infrastructure manager ProRail told SpoorPro. “Ballast has also been removed from under the sleepers, and this requires repair with larger equipment.”

The municipality facilitates

“Demonstrating is a fundamental right”, the spokesperson added, “but demolishing the track is not one of them,” she adds. The rail infrastructure manager previously called the action “unacceptable”. It wasn’t the first time that the activists removed stones from beneath freight railway lines, as they had previously done so in the port of Amsterdam.

A spokesperson for the activist groups said they were not stopped by police, “not even when we went under the fence and removed stones.” The municipality announced last week that it would not ban the action and would facilitate it, specifically to ensure it was as safe as possible. The municipality position, similar to the one it adopted earlier this year, could not count on much sympathy from the involved rail parties.

The metro line leading to Hoek van Holland used to be a traditional railway line up until 2019, when it was sold to RET, Rotterdam’s public transport operator, and incorporated into the city’s metro network. The option of utilising the line for rail freight transshipment services has been considered since the sale, and it already happened once in 2021. This initiative might thus provide additional capacity and help alleviate the congestion issue.

Similarly, the Antwerp-Bruges port states that there is relatively little congestion for sea ships, although barges can still encounter problems. The primary issue, according to their Rotterdam counterparts, is with hinterland transport.

Despite the decline of rail’s share in the modal split, Rotterdam says that rail freight is still indispensable resolving those problems. Antwerp also points to “robust infrastructure”, but does not single out rail as a solution for congestion issues.

Ongoing improvements and a role for rail

“In order to continue transporting the increasing flow of containers to the hinterland in an efficient manner, the Port of Rotterdam, [Dutch infrastructure manager] ProRail, and the Ministry of Infrastructure are investing in sustainable and efficient rail development”, the Rotterdam port says. It hopes to achieve sufficient rail capacity, reliable infrastructure and affordable rail usage fees in the Netherlands.

In addition, the APMT and RWG terminals in Rotterdam are currently getting an expansion, which is set to nearly double container capacity. What’s more, a digitisation programme by the name of Rail Connected looks to improve efficiency, transparency, and cooperation in rail freight. It does so through standardised data exchanges between terminals, rail operators, and carriers.

Those steps will contribute to an increase in container handling capacity, but disruptions and volatility will remain. And for that reason, there is no predictable end date for the port congestion. “It is important to make maximum use of the existing port infrastructure to strike a balance between the seaside and the hinterland”, the Rotterdam port adds. It wants to be resilient and have the ability to deal with future disruptions – and rail can play a role in that.

“NATO is a colonial project built on exploitation, oppression and extreme forms of violence, which above all serves the interests of mass-murdering billionaires in the global north”, the group is cited as saying in SpoorPro.

“By giving NATO and Israel free rein, the port is complicit in war crimes and genocide. Geef Tegengas demands that the Port Authority immediately cease imports and exports from areas where human rights are violated, immediately implement a full trade and arms embargo with Israel, and present a plan to phase out the transit of all other polluting raw materials and products as soon as possible.”

Harmful to rail companies

The group has blocked access to the Rotterdam port five times before this year. Earlier, they cited the arms trade with Israel and polluting freight flows as their primary motivation for stopping trains.

For its part, the rail freight industry was not all too happy about the blockades. Hans-Willem Vroon, head of the Dutch rail freight association RailGood, earlier stated that the protests are “damaging,” creating excessive burdens for rail freight. Blocked trains lead to significant revenue losses (35,000 euros per train) and hinder profitability in an already dwindling market. Beyond the purely financial, repeated unreliability due to protests risks a further modal shift to the road sector.