First Train of the ‘LOG4NRW’ Project Has Started

Off the road, onto the tracks and ships: A powerful alliance of several ports and railway operators in North Rhine-Westphalia aims to eliminate around 27,000 truck trips in the future. The first container train as part of the ‘LOG4NRW’ project has now set off. The inaugural train was over 90 percent full at its departure from Kreuztal. From the South Westphalia Container Terminal in Kreuztal, the train traveled via Dortmund to Duisburg. Here, it was loaded onto a barge and transported to Rotterdam. In the future, two container trains will run weekly between South Westphalia and the Ruhr area.

The initiative is under the patronage of Oliver Krischer, Minister for Environment, Conservation and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia. “I am pleased that LOG4NRW has started so quickly and successfully. Shifting traffic from road to rail is an important building block of the transport transition. Both the economy and climate protection benefit from sustainable logistics solutions,” said Krischer.

The goal is to provide a noticeable relief to the traffic situation in the Ruhr area and South Westphalia. The planned concept includes the following connection: Voerde-Emmelsum (Container Terminal Contargo) – Duisburg-Walsum logport VI (Multimodal Terminal Duisburg) – Port of Dortmund (CTD Container Terminal Dortmund) – Siegerland (South Westphalia Container Terminal in Kreuztal) and back. This leads to immediate relief of the highways 2, 4, and 45, as well as the already tense traffic situation in South Westphalia, particularly in the Sauerland region. Furthermore, the combined rail and inland shipping system enables transport between the terminals in Duisburg, Voerde-Emmelsum, Dortmund, and Kreuztal for the first time. Since the Emmelsum port on the Lower Rhine cannot currently be accessed by train due to a defective bridge, duisport is using its water taxis on this route.

Bookings for all partners through the duisport agency

The scheduling of bookings for all cooperation partners has been taken over by duisport agency GmbH as the central marketing and sales company of the duisport group. The traction of the trains is jointly carried out by the duisport subsidiary duisport rail GmbH and the Dortmund railway – from Emmelsum via logport VI in Duisburg, the Dortmund port, and the CTD to Kreuztal.

“That we can start just two months after the first discussions with potential customers shows that we had the right idea at the right time. Not least in light of the increase in toll fees in December, the railway proves once again to be an excellent alternative and a real problem solver,” says duisport CEO Markus Bangen. “Especially in our traffic-congested North Rhine-Westphalia, with unfortunately increasing infrastructure problems, we see the future of logistics in an intelligent linking of transport modes. Our cooperation thus creates resilience through active traffic shifting and has a significant sustainable impact by reducing the emissions burden of transport,” says DeltaPort Managing Director Andreas Stolte. “The brand ‘LOG4NRW’ is rolling. With the first train, it becomes clear that we function well together as strong partners in the market and provide a targeted and attractive logistics offering. We are actively shaping the transport transition together with the companies and offering a forward-looking product to all other interested parties,” says Dortmund Port Board Member Bettina Brennenstuhl.

The interest of the shipping industry is encouraging

“The interest of the shipping industry in the new train product is remarkably high despite the difficult market environment for combined transport in Europe. Our domestic companies are heavily reliant on transport of wagon groups, individual wagons, and combined transport, as most of them are not able to handle the volume for full trains. LOG4NRW is therefore existentially necessary for the logistics of North Rhine-Westphalia’s strongest industrial region, South Westphalia,” says Christian Betchen, Managing Director of KSW Kreisbahn Siegen-Wittgenstein GmbH and South Westphalia Container Terminal GmbH.
Photo: © LOG4NRW