Greener rail transport

All rail transports in Germany and Austria were converted to sustainably generated electricity last year resulting in a reduction in CO2 emissions of around 60% despite increased volumes of goods transported.

“Transferring goods from road to rail is a key lever for mitigating climate change,” explained Peter Kiss, chief executive of the Metrans Group.

Metrans also fully offsets the emissions of containers moved on these routes for users of the ‘HHLA Pure’ product. Last year, this corresponded to 912,000 teu on routes to and from Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Koper, with over 45,000 tonnes of CO2 offset through climate protection projects that meet Gold Standard certification criteria.

“The future belongs to eco-friendly logistics and it is therefore our aim to provide carbon-neutral logistics. With our joint product HHLA Pure, we are coming one step closer to this future every year,” said Mr Kiss.

Metrans has set its sights even higher with a number of changes to help it reach its goal of being climate-neutral by 2040. The first electric truck in Hungary went into operation in Budapest in order to cover the ‘final mile’.

Hybrid locomotives have also been in use for years where overhead lines are not available for shunting using electricity and electric rail gantry cranes have been ordered to replace some of the diesel-powered reach stackers.