“These times demand resilient railways that can withstand the growth of military transport”, Aartsen explained. “Much military equipment enters Europe through Dutch ports. The North Sea-Baltic Corridor is the most obvious route for eastbound transportation.”

“It is important that military transports do not encounter any bottlenecks”, Aartsen continued. “European cooperation is enormously important for that.”

Military transport simulations

Aartsen’s appeal was addressed to colleagues in Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – all countries that are involved with the North-Sea Baltic Corridor. It has over 9,000 kilometres of rail infrastructure, and over 82,000 trains ran along the corridor last year.

Recently, the Netherlands itself conducted a study into the removal of bottlenecks for military rail transportation. It found that measures are needed to make the railways more resilient and suitable for military freight. The study suggested a minimum investment of 600 million euros into physical infrastructure and the improvement of security systems and processes.

The Dutch government is currently working to implement priority access for military transportation on the railways. That should prevent military trains from having to stop at the border due to paperwork. The infrastructure and defense ministries, together with infrastructure manager ProRail, are working to simulate military transports to identify bottlenecks. They are also working on a resilience strategy to curb hybrid threats.

Seeking business opportunities

Adding to the existing ten ports belonging to the corridor, Zeebrugge and North-Sea ports are crucial rail freight players that will add value and “provide new business opportunities”. Their addition is “of strategic importance for the companies wanting to transport their goods safely and efficiently and contributes to the modal shift to rail. Reliable rail freight services, accessible to all, is the way forward and beneficial for both the environment and the economy,” says the RFC NS-B in an announcement.

The port of Zeebrugge has a clear focus on rail freight that occupies around 15 per cent of its overall cargo transport. It has multiple rail freight connections, for instance, with France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. On top of that, last year, it merged in one port company with the port of Antwerp, which already belongs to the RFC NS-B. their goal is to become the biggest container port in Europe, and one can only imagine the possibilities emerging from such a development.

On the other hand, the North-Sea port (Ghent-Terneuzen) has an equally interesting potential. The European Commission had announced since February 2021 that it aimed to include the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal zone in the North Sea-Baltic RFC. The North-Sea port, which already belongs to the Rhine-Alpine and North Sea-Mediterranean RFCs, keeps rail transport on top of the agenda. 7 to 8 million tonnes of cargo enter or leave the port by rail every year. That is 10 per cent of all freight transport between the port and the hinterland, a relatively high share compared to other ports in western Europe. More than 300 trains come and go every week.

East-West bridge

Apart from the ports in the Benelux area, the North Sea-Baltic RFC acquired another station on the Poland-Ukraine border. Medyka, a border crossing and promising terminal will “improve the land bridge between Europe and Asia in the context of the growing traffic between East and West.” “The extension of the corridor to Medyka is another step on the way to improve rail transport to the East and Asian countries, increasing the transport potential of this Corridor and expanding the transport offer, which positively fits in the diversification strategy of PKP PLK” explains RFC NS-B.

Medyka terminal was originally used for the transport of iron ore. Indeed the terminal is part of PKP’s diversification strategy, with PKP Cargo aiming to “turn Medyka into a new Malaszewicze”. However, since rail transport of this commodity was suspended, PKP Cargo purchased two reach stackers to handle containers. Currently, it can handle 3-4 trains per day. One of the main advantages is that the terminal offers transhipment from narrow to standard gauge (1435mm to 1520mm). Moreover, it offers storage possibilities, so the transhipment does not need to be carried out wagon per wagon, as in nearby terminals.

Also read:

• Port of Zeebrugge wants to become a rail freight hub
• North-Sea Baltic corridor now includes North Sea Port
• PKP Cargo wants to turn Medyka into ‘new Malaszewicze’

GTS says it will ‘integrate perfectly’ with its existing services which has Piacenza at the heart of a network connecting western Europe with southern member states such as Greece and Turkey. Moerdijk is a rapidly growing port which sits almost directly between Rotterdam and Antwerp, and is well placed to potentially exploit future growth through the Rhine-Alpine, North Sea-Mediterannean and North Sea-Baltic Corridors.

Increasing rapidly

Ferdinand van den Oever, Director of the Port of Moerdijk, said it was important for the port to have good rail connections, and that the new service would contribute to this. “The number of trains at Moerdijk is increasing rapidly at this time, and the Port of Moerdijk is very satisfied with this development,” he said. “It contributes further to the sustainability of the port by promoting more transports via water and rail.””

Combined Cargo Terminals (CCT) has already invested in a new crane at Moerdijk in order to handle containers more efficiently and to reduce the amount of time containers are stationary at the terminal. It already has its own rail terminal with two 750 metre-long tracks and one of 950 metres which extends all the way to the quay. This also allows for direct transhipment between train and inland barge, and train and shortsea vessels.

Nick Ahsman, Director of GTS Nederland, said :“The new rail connection will be perfectly integrated into the extensive GTS network that connects via the hub in Piacenza in the south of Italy (Rome, Naples, Bari) and ferry connections to Greece and Turkey, and via Moerdijk in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Ireland.” 

Intermodal solutions

Luc Smits, Director of CCT Moerdijk, added: “ The joint preparations by GTS, A2B-online and CCT shows what you can achieve when you really put your shoulder to the wheel and strengthen existing concepts by implementing intermodal solutions. With this new service the current connections will be doubled, and will enable us to offer our mutual customers reliable and efficient intermodal services with a high frequency.”

Moerdijk is also directly connected with the Betuweroute, the dedicated freight line which runs right through the Netherlands in an easterly direction towards Germany. The new services leave Piacenza on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 1900hrs, and take two days. The return legs leave Moerdijk at 18.15hrs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.