|
|
One of the most important gauges for assessing the development of rail transportation to the hinterland
from the port of Rotterdam is undoubtedly the rate of development on the Betuwe Route. An ever-larger part
of rail transportation to the hinterland runs via this special freight line between Rotterdam and the German
border near Emmerich. Few European ports can boast such a railway line that is exclusively reserved for
freight traffic and serves a whole range of hinterland destinations.
After the difficult year 2009, when about 140 trains ran via the Betuwe Route weekly, it turns out that robust
growth has been achieved. Last year, the number of trains on this freight-only route rose to 350 trains a
week. Keyrail, the company that operates the railway in question, expects that in 2011, more than 400 trains
will make use of the Betuwe Route every week. Keyrail is the operator of this rail connection. Three
shareholders participate in the company. They are capacity manager ProRail, the RPA and the Port of Amsterdam.
Currently, a fair number of railway companies regularly use this freight railway line. They are the following
eight railway companies: DB Schenker Rail Nederland, TX Logistik, ACTS, Rurtalbahn, CapTrain, Häfen und
Güterverkehr Köln-HGK, ERS Railways, Rotterdam Rail Feeding and the rail operators Kombiverkehr and Hupac Intermodal.
Another ten or so rail contractors make use of the Betuwe Route, including railway construction companies
and civil engineering companies. In the near future this will include HSL Logistik who wants to start train services
from Rotterdam to East-European destinations.
Another development that has characterised the 160 kilometres long Betuwe Route lately is the great
diversity in cargo. Where mainly container trains initially ran via this railway to Germany - and beyond
- now bulk trains also increasingly make use of it. For instance, DB Schenker Rail Nederland-DBSRN runs five
to six daily trains in both directions between the coal terminals on the Maasvlakte and the German power
stations and blast furnaces. Since the middle of December of last year, the daily ore trains of
DB Schenker Rail Nederland have been added. This has greatly expanded the efficiency of this
transportation segment of DBSRN, especially since the concerned bulk trains of this railway company always
run in the same composition between Rotterdam and the German border. That significantly reduces delays at
the various terminals. Moreover, by making use of automatic couplings since recently, the company has
also been able to reduce the time-consuming shunting movements to a minimum in the loading and unloading
centres.
The fact that these improvements and the expansion of the load handled by rail could be achieved is also due
to the recent electrification of the Port Railway and the Betuwe Route at 25 kV. Thanks to this, destinations can
be reached non-stop from the Maasvlakte to far into almost all countries of the European continent, served
by powerful electric engines. The time-consuming changing of traction and train staff at the borders is
now a thing of the past.
Currently, 65 per cent of the rail load in the direction of Germany runs via the Betuwe Route and the Emmerich
border crossing. The remaining rail load is transported in easterly direction via the Dutch/German border
crossings at Oldenzaal/Bad Bentheim and Venlo/Kaldenkirchen.
|
|
