Helrom puts trailers on rail for Audi
NewsTogether with logistics company Duvenbeck, Audi AG is using the Helrom horizontal rail loading system to move reduce truck kilometres by 185,000 per week.
Bayernhafen for Helrom Megaswing
The Bavarian inland ports company is to deploy the Helrom horizontal access trailer wagons to connect Regensburg with Lébény in Hungary, starting in April 2024
As discussed before, in 2019 Helrom acquired the IPR of the Megaswing developed by Kockums Industrier in Sweden in the early 2000s. Helrom has been able to industrialise the designs and successfully market the technology.
As far as WorldCargo News is aware, Bayernhafen is the third customer for the system. The existing long distance axis is Vienna-Düsseldorf.
The trade-off for swing in/out designs like Megaswing, Modalohr (used by VIIA and, in future, by Brittany Ferries) or Flexiwaggon is offsetting the extra trailing deadweight and therefore less cargo weight capacity against the savings in lo-lo handling costs and the ability to avoid using lo-lo terminals, which are often congested, in exchange for relatively low infrastructure costs at the rail/road interchange terminals. Hence, decisions have to be taken on a case-by-case, route-by-route basis.
Bayernhafen is hoping to move 17,000 trailers in the first full year of operations between Regensburg and Lébény, which is located south of Bratislava. Rail distance is around 550 kms and the axis is very similar to Vienna-Düsseldorf, albeit shorter in the north and longer in the south.
To accommodate the service, Bayernhafen is modifying its Trailerport, which caters for swap bodies as well as semi-trailers. Hard-standing areas and the entrance gate will be adapted in the coming months, and charging units for electric “first and last mile” road tractors will be installed.
The Bavarian State Minister for Housing, Building and Transport, Christian Bernreiter, said: “I’m curious to see how the system performs in operation. In any case, it has the potential to strengthen combined transport, which I very much welcome. I am particularly pleased that the innovation is being established in cooperation with the state-owned company Bayernhafen.”
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