Several new freight services across Europe have begun, including new links between France and Germany, while other providers have expanded the services being offered.
French multimodal operator Delta Rail said it would add a new container service to link Chalon-sur-Saone and Duisburg at the end of February, intended to offer competition to overland routes linking the Rhine with French ports, including Le Havre and Marseilles.
The shift was spurred by a combination of greater environmental awareness as well as increasing unreliability linked to China’s long-running zero-covid policies.
Over the course of the pandemic UK rail freight experienced its own boost with longer services catering for surging demand for healthcare products and food.
This spiking demand has levelled as supply chains have contended with a host of issues, including HGV driver shortages, increased costs, port disruption, supply chain bottlenecks and fallout from Brexit.
Greater investment in rail freight offered a range of economic and social benefits, including removing up to 1.6bn lorry km from the UK supply chain alone, alongside reduction in associated greenhouse gas emissions, but energy worries threaten this.
With shippers increasingly open to rail – “the most important development” for rail freight, is the growing belief that government and industry must act to ensure they meet their claimed aims of sustainable, environmentally-friendly supply chains.