This “without a doubt reflects the strength, solvency and viability of the project that we have presented to the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility”, commented the president of the Port Authority of Santander, César Díaz.

Díaz added that the rail highway would be necessary to boost the port’s competitiveness, expand its catchment area and to create a green corridor between central Spain, the UK and northern Europe.

Adif’s turn

“Santander already has significant strengths that alone justify this rail freight corridor”, Díaz is quoted as saying. “We are leaders along the entire northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula in terms of Ro-Ro freight movement and the number of intermodal transport units. Furthermore, we boast the highest rate of rail-port intermodality (15%) in the entire system of ports of general interest.”

The next step in developing this intermodal corridor is the responsibility of Adif. The infrastructure manager should conduct a P400 clearance study. This should identify the necessary adaptations for trains carrying semi-trailers to run on the route.

Rail highways in Spain

Spain currently has rail highways between Barcelona and France, as well as on the Valencia-Madrid-Portugal route. It will likely complete the Algeciras-Zaragoza rail highway by the end of 2026.

Other rail highway projects that are in progress include:

• Seville-Madrid-Zaragoza
• Valencia-Badajoz-Lisbon
• Madrid-Badajoz-Oporto-Lisbon
• Azuqueca-Zaragoza-Tarragona
• Tarragona-Barcelona
• Madrid-Valladolid-Burgos-Vitoria
• Murcia-Madrid
• Cádiz-Madrid
• Tamarite de Litera-Irún/Portbou
• Zaragoza-Pamplona (Noain)-Vitoria (Júndiz)

“The Ministry of Transport expresses its deep satisfaction with this long-awaited measure, which strengthens the Alpine rail highway between Italy and France with a market-based instrument and replaces the previous model based on the monopoly of a single concessionaire, which has been at a standstill for over a year”, the Italian side commented.

The service could restart in September, according to the managing director of the Orbassano interport (SITO), Enzo Pompilio D’Alicandro. It would aim to load up to 100 trucks per direction per day. “Operators are looking with interest at this service, which makes it possible to increase the load by 15% in intermodal mode”, D’Alicandro is quoted as saying in Italian media.

‘Unprecedented’ removal and repair operation

The service had been operating five weekly round-trips when a train composed of 17 Modalohr-type wagons  derailed on a section of the Cherbourg-Caen rail line just 50 kilometers into its journey of almost 1,000 kilometres. Cleanup operations were described at the time by SNCF Réseau as an operation “of unprecedented scale in France” and one which mobilised a team of 100 engineers and technicians.

Major repairs of the track and rail infrastructure followed. In total, putting the line back in working order was estimated to have cost 10 million euros. Brittany Ferries introduced a backup solution during the two month hiatus in the combi service. It consisted of operating a freight-only ferry service between Poole, in south-west England and Bilbao.

Increase in frequencies

The derailment was an untimely blow to a service inaugurated as recently as July 2025. It raised fears that the company risked losing its ‘combi’ customer base and that other road hauliers would be deterred from considering a modal shift from truck to train. However, the service has resumed with six departures weekly from Cherbourg and seven from Bayonne/Mouguerre – an increase in the number of frequencies operated pre-derailment.

Trains will run between the Yilport Iberia terminal in Huelva, managed by the Turkish Yilport Group, and the Córdoba el Higuerón facility, run by Laumar. The preparations for the launch of a Huelva-Cördoba rail highway started one year ago, with the announcement of a new track and the expansion of the terminal in the port of Huelva.

Rail highways in Spain

Currently, there are two operational rail highway services in Spain, one between Barcelona and the French border across the Perthus tunnel, on standard gauge, and one in Iberian gauge. The latter connects the port of Valencia to Madrid and, as of recently, to Entrocamento in Portugal. Spain is working on the launch of at least 10 more, including:

• Seville-Madrid-Zaragoza
• Valencia-Badajoz-Lisbon
• Madrid-Badajoz-Oporto-Lisbon
• Azuqueca-Zaragoza-Tarragona
• Tarragona-Barcelona
• Madrid-Valladolid-Burgos-Vitoria
• Murcia-Madrid
• Cádiz-Madrid
• Tamarite de Litera-Irún/Portbou
• Zaragoza-Pamplona (Noain)-Vitoria (Júndiz)

The new wagons for rail highway services are part of an initiative co-financed with EU funds, more specifically the Next Generation EU scheme. VTG received a total of 37 million euros for a total investment of 75 million euros, according to Spanish sector association Faprove. VTG already provides the wagons for the rail transport of semi-trailers between Valencia and Madrid, a service which will be soon extended to Portugal.

VTG’s iWagons in the UK

For the deal in the UK, the wagon lessor delivered the first 18 iWagons to construction company Breedon. The units are JPA powder tank wagons, suitable for the transport of fine powders such as cement. The remaining 44 items will be delivered over the next 12 months, VTG said.

They will be equipped with the Knorr-Bremse FreightControl Sentinel system, developed by Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems. The device which allows for the real-time monitoring of various aspects of a wagon’s journey. The partnership between VTG and Knorr-Bremse entails VTG’s purchase of 2,000 wagon sets of FreightControl Sentinel technology by the end of 2029.

“Once the lifting operation is complete, major track repair work will have to be carried out. This will mainly concern the catenary wires and their supports over a distance of more than 100 metres, as well as the rails, sleepers and structures affected over a distance of more than 500 metres.” The track repair work is expected to take at least three weeks. The diagnosis, which is still ongoing, will enable a more precise timetable for the resumption of service to be determined, the spokesperson added. One of the immediate concerns facing Brittany Ferries is the operation to return the trailers that were part of the derailed convoy to customers.

Rail highway launched only last year

Moreover, the sudden suspension of the service could have led to a build-up of trailers at the Cherbourg ‘combi’ terminal which arrived at the port aboard the ferry operator’s Ro-Ro vessels from the UK and Ireland. But this has not been confirmed. Approached by RailFreight.com, a spokesperson for Brittany Ferries said the company was not able to comment on such issues at this stage.

Clearly, the derailment is an untimely blow to a service launched less than a year ago. Brittany Ferries had also been been aiming to increase the number of weekly round trips to six or seven in 2026. The company had outlined plans too to carry fresh fruit and vegetables on the rail highway service as well as cosmetics and perfumes. While its future is hardly in doubt, the real challenge will be to retain its current customer base as well as hoping this kind of incident will not deter other road hauliers from considering a modal shift to rail.

In 2026, VIIA is targeting the transport of 22,500 semi-trailers and containers between Sète and Calais, rising to 40,000 annually in the longer term, she added. Among VIIA’s partners in the Sète-Calais rolling highway is the Danish shipping company DFDS, which operates six weekly sailings between two Turkish ports and the port of Sète.

SNCF CEO present at inauguration

Also present at the inauguration of the Sète combi terminal was the new SNCF Group CEO, Jean Castex, a former French prime minister. He told the gathering that the development of rail freight was of national interest. “The carbon footprint of rail freight transport is excellent, as is its energy rating. However, compared to the volume of trucks travelling on the A9 motorway (in the vicinity of Sète), rail freight only has a market share of 3% compared to road). We must absolutely take action.”

Castex pointed to the uneven playing field between the two transport modes with road enjoying an unfair competitive advantage over rail freight whose fixed costs are “a lot heavier” and “needs to be supported by the public authorities.” He also underlined that boosting rail freight in the region could not be done without the benefit of a new high-speed rail line between Montpellier and Perpignan, along France’s Mediterranean coast – a project which has triggered a fair degree of opposition for some local municipalities and residents. “Consultation phases are underway. Show me a high-speed rail project that isn’t subject to protest and debate!” he remarked.

‘Connecting sea and rail seamlessly’

For Philippe Malagola, president of the port of Sète, the new combi terminal makes the ecological transition in transport much more accessible for businesses and is a way of “connecting the sea and rail seamlessly”, while creating “a link between the Mediterranean, the English Channel and the North Sea.”

The Sète terminal required the investment of just over 19 million euros with VIIA, the Occitanie public regional council and the port authority each making a contribution. VIIA also recently launched a new rolling highway between Bettembourg, in Luxembourg, and Brittany Ferries’ new combi terminal in Bayonne-Mouguerre, near the French-Spanish border.

The Valencia-Madrid rail highway

The rail service for semi-trailers between the port of Valencia and Madrid was launched in July 2024. Medway provides the terminals and locomotives, the wagons come from Tramesa and the semi-trailers from TransItalia. After being interrupted in November 2024 due to the extreme weather in Valencia, the service was resumed in December.

Initially, the plan entailed a stop in Madrid, but the tests will reportedly connect Valencia to Entroncamento directly. Two trains will run in each direction every week. The Valencia-Madrid rail highway service was launched in July 2024 and was then interrupted for over a month in November and December of the same year due to extreme weather conditions.

The construction of the terminal cost 20 million euros, provided by VIIA, the Occitanie region and Port Sud de France. The port of Sète is a key entry point into Europe for cargo coming by sea from Türkiye. “This development offers Turkish companies an important opportunity to deliver their cargo to the north of France, the Benelux region and the Scandinavian countries”, VIIA said on LinkedIn.

Bettembourg-Moguerre rail highway

In addition to the Sète-Calais service, VIIA also inaugurated a new rail highway connection between the terminal in Bettembourg, Luxembourg, and Brittany Ferries’ new facility in Moguerre. This initiative is carried out by VIIA’s subsidiary Lorry Rail. For the first month there will be two roundtrips per week, which will be then doubled after 17 November.

Other than VIIA and Lorry Rail and Brittany Ferries, the project sees the involvement of Ambrogio and CFL Terminals for the terminals, Captrain for traction and, once again, Lohr which will provide the special wagons. The first train left Bettembourg on Wednesday 15 October and reached Moguerre the next day.