The Rhine-Alpine Gateway is one of Europe’s most important rail routes connecting the Mediterranean ports with the economic heartland of Central Europe, handling half of the trade between northern Europe and Italy via Switzerland.
Asia-Europe shippers are looking more at southern European ports as intermodal bottlenecks slow container delivery through some of the big North Europe gateways.
The key north-south rail link is flowing again, after the section between Milan and Basel had been closed for two weeks, but challenges remain, as terminals work to clear a huge container backlog.
Chinese shippers of fresh produce to Russia may soon have a cheaper option for transporting products to the Moscow markets as rail freight enters the picture.
Transcontainer has dominated the Asia Pacific-to-Russia rail cargo route for the past several years, but a new logistics provider could inject competitive forces into this transport segment.
Improved performance is crucial for Europe rail to encourage more customers to switch from road transport, and new EU rules on coordinating infrastructure will help rail reliability.
Shippers will greet news that the key European rail corridor will open five days early with some relief, but they will still have to struggle for alternatives until early October.
The China-Europe rail route is gaining in popularity among shippers, but even with its rapid growth, the weekly capacity overland is just 2 percent of that offered by ocean.
Rail traffic between Italy and Germany is expected to rise sharply in September, which is not good news with the crucial Alpine route shut down until Oct. 7.
The effects of a weak start to the year for Kerry Logistics were reversed by a strong second quarter and the Hong Kong-based company is expecting a positive full-year result.
The two month shutdown of a key rail corridor in Northern Europe is adding almost one-third to the transportation costs from the Mediterranean to Germany.
The growing popularity of shipping containers by rail from China to Europe is leading to delays as increasing cargo volume begins to overpower European terminals.