“The two new railway lines are the first step towards further developing our rail transport services in Europe and expanding our offering to include continental rail connections,” said Andreas Mager, Managing Director of Contargo Rail Services.
The new corridors – the Duisburg-Dourges Shuttle (DDS) and the Poland-France Shuttle (PFS) – are intended to provide environmentally friendly alternatives for transporting goods between Western and Eastern Europe.
Three weekly shuttles to Duisburg
From the end of August, the Duisburg-Dourges Shuttle will link the Lille Dourges Conteneur Terminal (LDCT) in northern France with the intermodal terminal in Duisburg. The fixed timetable will include three return trips per week. This new connection will facilitate deliveries via Dourges to and from cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Mouguerre, Paris, Perpignan and Rennes. The DIT terminal in Duisburg will also provide rail links to Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and China.
Two routes from France to Poland
The Poland-France Shuttle will also be launched at the end of August, with two planned routes: Dourges–Krzewie and Dourges–Kutno. Both Polish destinations are located in central Poland, near Łódź.
The direct connection between Dourges and Krzewie will initially operate once a week in each direction, linking LDCT in Dourges with the Miratrans terminal. Contargo plans to increase the frequency to two return trips per week after the initial launch phase.
The Kutno route will see more frequent service. According to Contargo, this connection will link the Central Poland Terminal in Kutno with Dourges via an intermediate stop in Duisburg. The section between Dourges and Duisburg will run three times per week in both directions, while the Duisburg–Kutno leg, operated in partnership with PCC, will run five times per week in both directions.
“Our goal is to increase rail’s share of our modal split in the medium term and further strengthen combined transport in Europe by expanding continental transport beyond the western and northern ports,” said Thijs van den Heuvel, Contargo’s COO for Transport Networks.
Contargo handles an annual transport volume of 1.9 million TEU, integrating container flows between Western and North Sea ports and inland destinations across Europe. The company operates 24 container terminals in Germany, France and Switzerland, along with its own shipping and rail services. In 2024, its 1,500 employees generated an annual turnover of €690 million.
