Rail freight operator METRANS is launching a new regular service in Poland. Starting 2 September, the company will be running trains between the western Polish city Poznań and the Baltic sea port in Gdynia. The intermodal operator Kombiverkehr is expanding during the same month on the Germany–Italy axis.
METRANS will connect its Gądki terminal near Poznań with the Baltic Container Terminal (BCT) and Gdynia Container Terminal (GCT) in the Gdynia port.
The operator points out that the introduction of this new route will expand the range of intermodal services for both imports and exports. Gdynia will soon be connected to METRANS’ European rail network. As such, the new Poznań-Gdynia connection will benefit customers in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria, says METRANS.
METRANS currently operates regular connections from its Poznań hub in the directions of Hamburg, Warsaw, Wrocław and Dąbrowa Górnicza towards the southeast. The hub occupies 175,000 square metres and features a storage capacity of 8,800 TEU. It also has four tracks, of which one is suitable for 750-metre long trains.
Gdynia is Poland’s second-largest port, located on the Baltic Sea. It specialises in general cargo, transported in containers and shipped via Ro-Ro services. The port has a developed network of multimodal connections with the hinterland, regular shortsea shipping and ferry connections. It is also part of the EU’s TEN-T Baltic-Adriatic Corridor.
Combined transport
Around the same time as METRANS’ new service, the combined transport operator Kombiverkehr is launching a new service too. Kombiverkehr is expanding its existing Nuremberg (Germany)–Verona (Italy) service. It is also connecting the German city of Regensburg to the route.
In doing so, Kombiverkehr is offering a direct link between southern Germany and northern Italy with onward connections further south. The route will have two round-trips per week and save 88% in carbon emissions compared to road transport, says Kombiverkehr.
