Article: Cooperation between container terminal and rail subsidiary Transfracht:
The closure of the Rahmedetal bridge on the A45 near Lüdenscheid poses major problems for the domestic economy and makes alternative transport concepts absolutely necessary – especially for freight transport. The container terminal Südwestfalen in Kreuztal and the railway subsidiary TFG Transfracht have now put such an alternative on the rails.
And that within just 14 days! Calamity wood from Siegen-Wittgenstein is transported to the JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven. From there, the wood is exported by ship. Until the bridge was closed, the damaged wood from our region was brought by truck to terminals in the Ruhr area and transported from there. Now it goes directly from the container terminal in Kreuztal to the youngest deep-water port in Germany.
Each train consists of 22 wagons with a total of 44,40' sea containers. The entire train has a length of 670 meters including locomotive. The train arrives on Mondays during the day with empty containers. These are temporarily stored in Kreuztal, while the train is loaded with the filled containers from the previous week. On the same evening he leaves the terminal again in the direction of Wilhelmshaven. In the course of the following days, the empty containers are brought by truck into the forests, filled with damaged wood and then transportedto the JadeWeserPort by the next train.
District Administrator Andreas Müller is pleased about the successful cooperation: "With the help of the terminal for combined transport, we were at least able to mitigate the effects of the closure of the Rahmede valley bridge for the domestic timber industry after the extensive calamity damage of recent years and are also making an active contribution to reducing the pollution caused by truck transports in the region."
In mid-January, the TFG had asked whether such timber transports from Kreuztal were possible. Just 14 days later, on 31 January, a first test cover went on the track. Meanwhile, a train runs every week. A second one will be added weekly in March. Christian Betchen, Managing Director of kreisbahn and the container terminal: "We are pleased to have convinced TFG of the locational advantages of the Südwestfalen Container Terminal and to have jointly implemented the first maritime train connection for our domestic timber industry."
Philipp Best, Sales Manager of TFG Transfracht GmbH, also praises the rapid implementation of the new transport link: "We are delighted to have established an alternative climate-friendly rail concept within a few weeks. In this way, we can continue to reliably guarantee the affected transports for our customer Kuehne + Nagel. Another best practice example of the flexibility of our AlbatrosExpress network and a further contribution to the environment in line with our sustainability strategy."
For the container terminal, it is the first transport to a seaport since the terminal was commissioned in 2019. Südwestfalen Container-Terminal GmbH is responsible for loading and unloading the train and the trucks, KSW Kreisbahn Siegen-Wittgenstein is responsible for the delivery of the entrance train with empty containers, the shunting of the train in the terminal for unloading/reloading in three parts and the train formation of the reloaded exit train in the Kreuztal freight station.
In order to be able to absorb additional cargo volumes for the shipping industry in the three-country corner, traffic is to be expanded to three departures per week in the future.
The initiators of the connection of South Westphalia to the JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven.
(f.l.t.r.): Ingo Meidinger, Sales Director, JadeWeserPort-Marketing GmbH & Co. KG, Christian Betchen, Managing Director KSW und SWCT, Sebastian Kolb, Head of Regional Division West, TFG Transfracht GmbH, Heiko Heupel, Managing Director SWCT, Stefan Meyer, General Manager Intermodal Deutschland, Kühne + Nagel AG & Co.) KG, Oliver Bergk, General Manager Sales, EUROGATE GmbH & Co. KGaA, KG, Carsten Bodmann, Head of Export Timber, Kühne + Nagel AG & Co.) KG, Philipp Best, Head of Sales, TFG Transfracht GmbH
About KSW:
KSW Kreisbahn Siegen-Wittgenstein GmbH is a modern service provider for rail freight transport. For more than130 years, it has been offering customers tailor-made, reliable and environmentally friendly transport solutions in the economic area of the three-state corner of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate and far beyond. With 46 employees, including four trainees, KSW moves around two million tonnes of goods a year. An important prerequisitefor this is that the company also maintains a railway infrastructure for public transport at the same time.
About TFG Transfracht:
TFG Transfracht is the market leader in containerized seaport hinterland traffic at German seaports. With its nationwide AlbatrosExpress network, TFG Transfracht connects the ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Koper, Rotterdam and Antwerp with over 15,000 locations in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland on a daily basis. TFG Transfracht is a Deutsche Bahn AG company with a transport volume of approx. 1,000,000 TEU (2021).
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