Speaking at the webinar, Bastien Thirion, Lahaye’s director of rail freight, said that at the request of HAROPA Port, Be Modal has drawn up plans to establish a rail link between Rennes and the Port of Le Havre’s intermodal road-rail terminal. The route chosen would pass through the Greater Paris region, which offers more reliable rail infrastructure and better operating conditions than the more direct path via Normandy, he explained.

Depending on the interest of shippers

“We have opted for a schedule of two weekly round trips to not duplicate resources. In other words, to be able to manage this solution with a single train making round trips and a single wagon; thus allowing us to amortise our fixed costs as much as possible by having locomotives and wagons running practically all week.”

“Be Modal favours the provision of train sets of 20 80-foot intermodal wagons, specifically adapted to maritime containers. This type of equipment optimises the loading of 20-, 30- and 40-foot containers. A train set could hold up to 80 TEU,” Thirion noted. The company estimates that it could transport up to 15,000 boxes a year on the route (import and export), with trains also accommodating refrigerated containers.

Nevertheless, nothing is officially set yet. A survey will sound out interest among shippers in a Rennes-Le Havre combi service, and if this reveals that sufficient demand exists to justify its launch, the first trains could operate on the route in 2026, Thirion added.

French ports want multimodality with rail

Also speaking at the webinar was François-Xavier Marie, director of Development at HAROPA Port, the umbrella agency running the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, who underlined that the development of train-borne freight services was a key element in the grouping’s multi-modal transport strategy.

HAROPA Port’s rail freight services currently consist of 100 round trips by train weekly to 21 domestic and international destinations, including Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Fos-sur-Mer, Miramas, Avignon, Nova (Italy) and Chavornay (Switzerland), operated by Naviland Cargo, Ferrovergne, Delta Rail and T3M.

Marie pointed to the short-term objectives of HAROPA Port’s multimodal transport strategy. In 2023, the modal split for container traffic transported to and from its ports showed road having an 82 per cent share of the whole, followed by rail (10 per cent) and river (5 per cent). This year, the target is for road share to fall to 77 per cent, with rail and river share rising to 12 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

As for the modal split for bulk traffic transported to and from Le Havre in 2023, road’s share was 65 per cent, followed by rail (25 per cent) and river (10 per cent). This year, the objective is to reduce the road to 60 per cent, with rail and river increasing to 26 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.

The service is pitched largely at ocean freight shippers in Brittany and the wider western France region with the inland port of Lille providing connections to Northern Europe seaports such as Dunkirk, Zeebrugge, Antwerp, and Rotterdam. But it is also catering for demand for goods bound for and originating in the region around Lille.

Combatting ‘all-road’ mindset’

“While there are shippers who are committed to modal shift as part of a corporate strategy in support of sustainable transport solutions, there are others, in the majority, for whom the switch to train-borne freight amounts to a radical step, a real change from the all-road mindset they’ve adopted to for so long, while at the same time a novelty attracting their curiosity,” he said.

“And for ourselves, at Lahaye, the task of marketing a full train has been a new and challenging experience and we have not been helped by current market conditions.” With loads heavily in favour of ex-Rennes freight in the launch phase, the service is now posting load factors of around 50% in both directions and Thirion remains hopeful there is scope to increase the frequency of the service to five round trips per week at some point.

The service transports a broad range of consumer and industrial goods – foodstuffs (ambient and controlled temperature), construction materials, joinery fittings and dangerous goods. Large shipper customers include Sodiaal (dairy products), Leroy Merlin, the DIY retail chain and Nestlé Purina Petcare.

One of the main components of ex-Lille traffic are large volumes of Heineken brand beers. The service probably accounts for around 5% of the total freight flows between Rennes and Lille, an indication of how marginal combi transport currently is this route but also highlighting the vast potential that exists for goods to take the train, Thirion noted.

Expanding routes

Last month, Lahaye’s subsidiary, Be Modal, teamed up with MGE Intermodal, to launch a weekly round-trip service for swap bodies to Blainville-sur-l’Eau, situated near Nancy, in eastern France. Traction is provided by Fret SNCF. As for further expansion in Lahaye’s combi transport offering, the company is looking to operate up to four trains a day from Rennes by 2030, Thirion explained. “We’re getting a good number of enquiries from shippers interested in shipping goods to and from Le Havre, France’s biggest container port while another possibility is a route to south-east France.”

Complementarity of modes

Thirion underlined that for combi transport to prosper there needs to be a wider recognition that road and rail freight complement each other to offer end-to-end solutions to their customers. “Combined transport makes the best possible use of human resources, assigning truck drivers to where they are most needed – first and last mile – with rail taking care of long distances. This will help to offset the projected shortage of truck drivers in the years ahead.”

Public aid essential

However, there are potential obstacles ahead. France’s alarming budget deficit and the need to rein in public spending is fuelling uncertainty as to whether the government will honour the financial commitments it has already made to combined transport in the coming years. The French authorities have drawn up a road map for rail freight with ambitious targets – doubling its share of the freight transport market by 2030-2035 and tripling volumes of combined transport (rail and river).

This will require the development of new infrastructure, as existing terminals are inadequate. Thirion observed. “The public sector is essential in the funding of such provision and its level of support going forward will depend on political choices in terms of energy transition and the fight against climate change.”

He said the aim is to make rail freight and combi transport financially sustainable in the long term without the need for subsidies. “A key element in achieving this will be the pooling of combined transport volumes on a greater scale than at present, enabling a reduction in costs and an increase in competitiveness in relation to road haulage.”

For the return trip, on the other hand, there will be a significant rail freight section crossing France. The Grain de Sail’s boats will undertake the journey between New York and Saint-Melo via the Antilles. From there, Lahaye will place the goods on trucks and take them to the Rennes-Terminal where they will be loaded onto trains and transported to Lille.

Lahaye’s Rennes-Lille service

Lahaye launched a rail freight service between Rennes and Lille in April 2023, with the possibility of accessing other European ports including Dunkirk, Zeebrugge, Antwerp and Rotterdam. One month after the start of this service, Heineken France decided to onboard the Lahaye trains to move its produce from its brewery in Mons-en-Baroeul.

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LaHaye’s terminal in Rennes

LaHaye Global Logistics operates the Rennes Terminal, taking care of forwarding, handling logistics, and maintenance services. Their focus is on beverages, agrifood, furnishing, and DIY sectors. The terminal can count on five rail tracks, one shunter, two reach-stackers, one gantry, and two forklifts with a maximum capacity of three and seven tons respectively. The terminal has a storage capacity of 240 containers. The Rennes Terminal is equipped to handle reefer containers, tank containers, and swap bodies.

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As SNCF explained, these companies would only have to take care of pre- and post-routing services with their own resources. SNCF will take care of the long-distance transport by rail by guaranteeing a specific fleet of wagons for the 2RC network. As a spokesperson from SNCF highlighted, pre- and post-routing services include the collection of goods and transportation to the logistic warehouse, the handling of goods from trucks to wagons, the unloading of goods from wagons to trucks, and the delivery of goods at one or more points.

SNCF’s network will offer international connections as well

With the new 2RC network, these companies with logistics warehouses can now offer a carbon-free end-to-end transport solution on a national scale. The seven companies that joined SNCF are Dupessey&Co, Laforêt Logistics, Lahaye Global Logistics, Transports Lassalle, MediacoVrac, EderlogMultimodal, and Groupe MGE.

Connecting these locations via SNCF’s rail network would therefore ensure lower emissions for the seven companies involved. By joining the network, these seven companies will be able to reach the most important destination in France via rail. Moreover, SNCF can offer further connections to France’s neighbouring countries, including Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium. The seven companies will also be able to reach the United Kingdom thanks to rail connections with the north of France.

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Customers pulling out, investments in danger

“Some (of our customers) have already warned us that they will have to pull out from this (rail freight) mode of transport,” he revealed. To date, around 20 shippers in the food industry and retail distribution in the Brittany region have chosen the more environmentally- friendly combined transport option for their shipments,

Based in Vern-sur-Seiche, near Rennes, Lahaye employs 1,700 staff and a fleet of 700 trucks. It has been operating a combined road-rail transport round-trip service between Rennes and Lyon five days a week for a number of years. “This is the equivalent of 12,000 fewer lorries on the road each year, and in March 2023, we plan to open a second link, three days a week, between Rennes and Lille,” Lahaye said. The opening of a second ‘combi’ route could lead to the creation of around 20 new jobs. Last spring, Lahaye invested 300,000 euros in the renovation and extension of the rail terminal in Rennes.

Until now, the cost of rail freight has held up well in relation to road freight, while in terms of environmental impact, the gain has been significant. In March this year, Lahaye estimated that the company’s development of combined transport had made it possible to avoid 53 million road kilometres since 2011 – 50,000 fewer tonnes of CO2 and 16,5 million litres of diesel saved. This represents a cost advantage when fuel prices are soaring but could well turn into a handicap given the steep increases in electricity prices affecting rail freight.

Support imperative after eightfold increase

Matthieu Lahaye urged the French state to provide financial support “to help us get through this difficult period”, adding: “The public authorities are listening, but nothing is happening. We are doing everything possible to keep our intermodal service going, but if the government does not commit to protecting the environment, we will have to re-consider our strategy.”

Earlier this month, Fret Ferroviaire Français du Futur (Alliance 4F), which represents France’s rail freight and intermodal operators, claimed the hike in energy prices was threatening the future of the sector. Rising from 56 euros per megawatt per hour (MWh) last year to 473,51 euros/MWh next year, the electricity bill paid by rail freight operators to SNCF Réseau, France’s rail network manager, will have increased more than eight-fold, it said.

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• France offers electricity price relief to promote shift to rail