CargoBeamer has started running the first ever train with trailers between Marseille and Calais for the unaccompanied transport of craneable and non-craneable semi-trailers on rail.

CargoBeamer tests unaccompanied freight train service between Marseille and Calais

The impact of dramatically increasing energy prices in the rail freight market has the potential to not only reverse modal shift, but also to fundamentally change the composition of the European rail freight sector, says the European Rail Freight Association (ERFA).

High energy prices could reverse intermodal shift, says ERFA

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Hermes Germany has been testing cross-border parcel transport by rail between Germany and Poland since the 1st of July, the Hamburg-based courier company has announced. The first transports have already been carried out successfully together with DB Cargo AG.</span>

Hermes Germany testing cross-border parcel transport by rail

Maritime Transport has agreed terms with SEGRO to become the rail operator at SEGRO Logistics Park Northampton. The deal, which includes the long-term lease of a new, 17-acre intermodal rail terminal and a wider management role for Maritime, covering the rail infrastructure on the Logistics Park, will provide occupiers at Northampton and in the East Midlands with new, low carbon freight connections from UK container ports and other inland rail terminals with capacity for up to 16 daily trains, when fully operational.

SEGRO and Maritime Transport to double rail freight capacity at East Midlands Gateway

Departing from various locations in China, a new A.P. Moller - Maersk service now connects China and Europe via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Romania in about 40 days.

Maersk launches a revamped Middle Corridor rail service from China to Romania

On November 15th, French cooperative Railcoop will launch its first freight service in southwestern France using abandoned rails owned by the state. The 9,000-member cooperative received its licence to run a railway company as recently as the end of September.

French rail cooperative set to launch freight train route using abandoned rails

Amid a continuous growth in rail freight volumes, the Spanish port of Huelva says it wants to have a rail freight link connecting it with Madrid and Zaragoza.

Spanish port urges construction of railway links to Madrid and Zaragoza

British railway network manager Network Rail is running weekly trains from the port of Tilbury to a depot in Daventry, Northamptonshire with the aim of helping imported wine get to the supermarkets for the festive period, reports The Times. Freight trains are also involved in the effort to take off some pressure of the port of Felixstowe by rail and intermodal transportation and carry containers nationwide.

Weekly “wine trains” to help transport Christmas booze stocks amid driver shortage

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) warns that a 200% increase from Network Rail on electricity charges to rail freight operators risks wrecking the industry while jacking up the use of diesel on both rail and road, thereby “making a nonsense of the Government's CO2 targets". Rail freight service provider Freightliner has already decided to temporarily replace electric services with diesel.

RMT: electricity price rise threatens intermodal and rail freight, encourages diesel use

The number of freight trains completing the China-Europe route in 2021 had already hit the milestone of 10,000 at the end of August, says China's State Railway Group.