Carload Traffic as an Alternative to Road Transport

The 17th BME/VDV Forum on Rail Freight Transport concluded on Thursday in Berlin. The focus of the two-day specialist event was on strengthening the railway as the most environmentally friendly mode of transport and the search for new intelligent transport and logistics models.

(Eschborn/Berlin) Whether single cars, groups of cars, or complete trains: carload traffic on rail is an economical and sustainable alternative to road transport. However, for the railway to leverage its advantages over trucks, significant investments in rail infrastructure are necessary. These are central findings from the presentations and discussions at the 17th BME/VDV Forum on Rail Freight Transport (SGV)*, which concluded on Thursday (February 1, 2024) with a record participation of 280 attendees. After the two-day event in 2023 focused on exploring future markets for rail, this year’s motto was “Single Cars, Groups of Cars, and Complete Trains – No Climate Transition Without Carload Traffic!”

“While multimodal transport is the focus of the political strategy for shifting transport, there is currently insufficient supply in multimodal transport for supply chains and regional services in domestic transport,” said Gerhard Oswald, Managing Partner of Gomultimodal GmbH. He cited consumer goods, temperature-controlled products, and semi-finished products as examples of current deficiencies. Additionally, important economic regions are poorly served and inadequately connected.

High Performance Demands from Shippers

High performance demands from shippers regarding selection, availability, quality, and delivery dates are pushing the logistics and transport industry to its limits. Practice shows that these high performance demands can no longer be met solely with today’s transport models in domestic traffic. In the short and medium-distance sector (60 to 300 km), “new intelligent transport and logistics models are needed that are economically calculable and can also be implemented in a timely manner,” Oswald continued.

Christian Utsch, Managing Director of Logistics at GMS Getränke & Mehr Servicegesellschaft mbH, informed about the advantages of intermodal single car traffic (EWV) as an economical and sustainable alternative to road transport. This option is also interesting for smaller shippers without their own rail connections and insufficient potential for complete trains. EWV is the “right answer to the driver shortage as well as increased truck tolls and diesel prices.” Furthermore, they are “politically and socially desired and sensible.” Utsch stated: “Intermodal single car traffic offers opportunities for shifting transport when the goal is to develop into group traffic and complete trains, and shippers are willing to take the rocky path to the first transport, and rail freight companies genuinely want it.”

“Single car traffic, with a share of about 18 percent, alongside complete train traffic and combined transport, is a pillar of rail freight transport,” said Jörg Stephan, Ministerial Councillor and Head of Department at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport. The EWV fulfills an important basic and network function with more than 1,400 access points to the rail network, even in cross-border rail freight transport. Due to high operating costs, EWV is currently predominantly not economically feasible. Only with increasing digitization and automation of rail freight transport can higher efficiency and profitability in EWV be achieved in the long term.

Development to Promote Rail Connections

Stephan also informed about current developments to promote rail connections. According to the federal rail connection funding program, 216 funding notices for rail connections were issued from 2004 to 2020. The total funding amount was nearly 175 million euros, and the total investment sum was around 455 million euros. A new funding guideline for connections has been in effect since March 1, 2023. Rail connections, feeder and industrial main tracks, as well as multifunctional facilities are state-funded. Financial support is available for the construction, expansion, reactivation, and replacement of rail connections, including connection switches.

“Whether large or small shipment size – successful logistics on the rail is fast and direct,” said Henrik Würdemann, CEO of Captrain Deutschland GmbH, in his presentation. Compared to road transport, rail can also score points in terms of factor costs. Direct transport by rail becomes competitive from a shipment size of about 250 tons (equivalent to five cars). “Assuming 100 percent ’empty return’, this statement applies from about ten cars,” Würdemann added. With clever linking of individual transport flows, rail can also be competitive with even smaller shipment sizes.

Dr. Jörg Hilker, Managing Director of Innofreight Germany GmbH, addressed current challenges for rail logistics. He informed about the status quo of freight cars. These are often very old and designed only for “average use.” Freight cars with integrated unloading technology are complex and “heavy.” The downtime of defective wagons is also high.

“The expansion of rail infrastructure is a strong signal for sustainable freight transport,” emphasized Ingrid Felipe, Board Member for Infrastructure Planning and Projects at DB InfraGO AG, in her statement. For the mobility transition sought by politics and business, rail is indispensable. No motorized mode of transport is as climate-friendly as the railway. Freight trains have significantly lower specific greenhouse gas emissions compared to trucks. At the same time, no mode of transport is as electric as rail. With more than 90 percent, it has the highest market share in electromobility. In comparison, road transport accounts for less than one percent. A strong rail means, according to Felipe, “a reduction of total CO2 emissions by 10.5 million tons per year. This corresponds to the annual CO2 footprint of one million people.”

To further expand rail freight transport, numerous major projects to increase network capacity are documented in the national rail transport master plan. Additionally, about 70 measures in the 740-meter network and four projects for electric freight rail are included. Furthermore, digitization with the expansion of the ETCS (European Train Control System) leads to higher capacity – without the need to build new tracks.

High-Performance Network from the Federal Government and Deutsche Bahn

Felipe also informed about the planned high-performance network from the federal government and Deutsche Bahn. To successfully realize it by 2030, more than 4,000 km of tracks are to be completely renovated by then. The complete renovation will lead to fewer closure times and thus also to fewer disadvantages for rail freight transport. Felipe stated: “In the sequence of the complete renovation projects, care has also been taken to ensure that simultaneously occurring complete renovations are traffic-compatible.”
Photo: © BME