Marseille Fos promotes rail services

That was the message during a meeting hosted by Mr Ranjard and transport operator, Naviland Cargo, to update its key Midi-Pyrenees clients on the port’s progress since national port reforms.

The procedures, which were introduced last September, have helped improve the efficiency of the weekly rail shuttle link between Marseilles Fos and the Midi-Pyrenees economic zone, which is among the port’s closest catchment areas.

Meanwhile, Mr Ranjard says that the port, together with Mediterranean hubs Gioia Tauro and Algeciras, was one of only three in Europe to be unaffected by the global economic crisis by registering double digit box growth.

Total container throughput at Marseille Fos rose by 13% in 2012 to a record of more than 1,062m teu. This included a 16% surge to more than 827,000 teu of deepsea traffic handled at Fos.

The meeting also revealed how in the first full year since French port reforms, volumes had been boosted by workforce reliability, the two private Fos 2XL container terminals and mounting occupancy of the logistics parks.