Gothenburg makes green tracks

This initiative has proved successful – 45 per cent of all containers are now transported by rail. This represents around 200,000 containers annually, which means 550 fewer large trucks on the roads each day. The Port of Gothenburg also has the largest ro/ro terminal in Sweden, handling half a million trailers each year. Only a few per cent of these arrive at the port by train, the remainder going by road. “But things are about to change. Our aim in the short term is for 10 per cent of all trailers to be transported to or from the port by trailer train. This would mean around 60,000 trailers each year, equivalent to 164 trucks every day. Looking ahead further the aim is 25 per cent,” says Magnus Kårestedt, CEO at the Port of Gothenburg. There are several reasons why it is not as simple to switch trailers to rail compared with containers. Up to now it has been cheaper to move trailers by truck, there has been a shortage of trailer trains and the contents of a trailer sometimes need to be unloaded at two or more points. The new trains are combitrains – half the train is loaded with trailers and half with containers. The train operators are North Rail and Intercontainer and the first three destinations are Vännäs (1,000 km to the north), Helsingborg in the south and Eskilstuna in central Sweden. Instead of, for example, a truck driving all the way from Eskilstuna to Gothenburg, it only needs to drive a short distance to the nearest inland terminal. The trailer is then lifted onto a train for onward transport to the Port of Gothenburg. “Our hope now is that companies and forwarders will latch on to this arrangement, which offers efficient transport and major environmental benefits,” says Magnus Kårestedt.

The Port of Gothenburg has received the Schenker Logistics Award for the second time. “This is first time a company has received the award twice. The Port of Gothenburg is, however, a worthy winner,” says Schenker CEO Ingvar Nilsson. The port received the award for its dry harbour concept throughout Sweden. The concept is based on making the whole of Sweden part of RAILPORT Scandinavia, where the Port of Gothenburg is the driving force. According to Schenker, 40 per cent of container goods are loaded onto rail shuttles for transport to the 22 terminals linked to the system. In doing so, the Port of Gothenburg has in effect succeeded in extending its port area to the whole of Sweden, reducing congestion in the port, increasing the through flow and reducing lead times to the end customer.”