Around Lake Constance is a very dynamic economy. With it, the port of Antwerp wants to become more connected. The first opportunity was presented on October 10th at an information event in the Palace Hohenems.
Antwerp could make a contribution to improve the creation of value of industry in Vorarlberg, Liechtenstein, eastern Switzerland and southern Germany, the representatives of the Belgian seaport in Austria and Germany, Walter Holzhammer and Elmar Ockenfels, emphasized in their joint presentation. We want to raise this potential as quickly as possible.
“Unfortunately, there is still no direct block connection for containers between Vorarlberg and Antwerp”, regretted Robert Steger, head of the Wolfurt freight terminal of ÖBB Infra, in his brief presentation. However, it has sufficient capacity to set up such a train connection and will launch a video gate to record truck and rail transports in 2020 as the first UKV hub with a specialization in maritime traffic in Austria.
In the meanwhile, an ambitious program for the development of rail logistics in hinterland traffic is underway in the port of Antwerp. By 2030, rail’s share of the modal split is set to double from the current 8 percent to more than 15 percent. In 2018, 24 million tonnes of goods were transported by rail.
The driving force to strengthen environmentally friendly transport logistics to and from Antwerp is the Antwerp Rail House joint venture founded by three companies last year. The company operates two warehouses with 14,220 m2 of covered space for trimodal cargo handling in Churchill Dock. The integrated Container Freight Station (CFS) already looks after a customer from the Austrian paper industry and still has spare capacity to handle additional business.
www.antwerprailhouse.be; www.portofantwerp.com ; www.oebb.at
