New development within the Distri Rail services

As from Monday the 11th of April 2016, Distri Rail BV, one of the largest Dutch privately owned and neutral rail operators, will start with a new rail connection between, Duisburg and Moerdijk. Both ports play a crucial role within European multi modal logistics. The new service is in addition to Distri Rail's current services of 12 calls per week to the Port of Rotterdam from and to Duisburg. Johan Booij, Managing Director of Distri Rail says: “In its initial start the service will offer 3 calls per week and we expect to increase the frequency of the service later this year. The terminal in Moerdijk that we will call upon is CCT (Combined Cargo Terminals) and in Duisburg it will call at DIT (Duisburg Intermodal Terminal) Duisburg Rheinhausen Logport I”. 

Especially the German terminal in Duisburg has a fantastic Hinterland with rail connections to the whole of Europe, Russia even up to China per rail. As from Duisburg, there are daily connections to countries / areas as Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Czech and Slovak Republic, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Russia and the former CIS countries and nowadays also daily trains from and to China. Of course for regional industry this new rail connection will be very interesting as well.

Distri Rail initiated the new connection, but it is strongly encouraged by its partners Port of Moerdijk, Port of Duisburg, CCT Moerdijk and the young and growing shortsea operator A2B-online. The train service is based upon the sailing schedule of A2B-online and directly connected with the 14 departures and arrivals per week of A2B-online to/from London Thamesport, Immingham, Teesport and Blyth, all in the UK. Next to these UK services, the trains also connect directly to other services to for instance Spain, Portugal and Norway with other short sea services that operate out of Moerdijk. With this connection, clients don’t have to shunt the units anymore by road, but arrive / depart directly on the shortsea terminal.

Johan Booij, Managing Director of Distri Rail adds: “This new service is completely in line with our strategy that DistriRail has developed. We see an enormous growth of shortsea volumes and we want to increase our Duisburg service from 12 to 18 trains per week. Also Moerdijk is growing as Seaport and Inland hub. Moerdijk offer nowadays a number of reliable shortsea services besides the UK, to for instance Norway, Spain and Portugal. Furthermore Moerdijk is ideally located just outside the busy, stressed and often congested infrastructure of the Port of Rotterdam. So also for the local industry this will be an interesting option. Areas as Noord-Brabant, Zeeland, parts of Zuid-Holland and the North of Belgium, Moerdijk is very effective to drop off or pick up containers without having to send your trucks in the busy ports of Rotterdam and / or Antwerp” he finishes.

Ferdinand van den Oever, general manager Port of Moerdijk: “We are very proud of this new rail connection between Duisburg and Moerdijk. It is an important step in realizing our railway ambitions as stated in our Port Strategy. The combination of water transport and rail leads to less truck traffic on the road, and to less congestion. But it is also important for a healthy environment, one of the other goals of our Port Strategy”.

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