Grimaldi in Baltic Adriatic rail bridge

News 6 Aug 2016 by WCN Editorial

Venice Port Authority, Lübeck Port Authority and Grimaldi Group have signed an agreement for the creation of an intermodal service (ship- train-ship) over Venice and Lübeck to connect the Adriatic and Baltic Seas

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The goal is to achieve daily train departures in both directions between the two seaports. Freight will be transported by Grimaldi ro-ro vessels linking Patras with Venice three times a week. Venice is the Italian nearest Italian port to the Brenner Pass.

Lübeck is the fourth biggest European ro-ro port, handling 21 Mtpa and more than 0.7M trailers annually. In the past year and more, Lübeck has lost important forestry industry volumes to Rostock and Kiel, and is anxious to increase other general ro-ro cargo throughput. Grimaldi Group, through its subsidiary Finnlines, is a leading ro-ro and ro-pax operator in the Baltic Sea, providing 38 weekly departures linking Lübeck with Sweden, 17 with Finland and two with Russia.

It is projected that the new rail bridge between Venice and Lübeck will start with two weekly departures each way with trains of 30 containers and/or trailers, increasing to six each way in the future, with a transit time in each direction of 26-30 hours.

This is a new “green” and fast approach Venice to the European hinterland by rail, in addition to the intermodal service already launched last November between Venice and Frankfurt (via Brenner), which has already doubled its volume. This service, noted Grimaldi, allows the transport, in just three days, of goods coming by sea from southern Italy or Greece to Germany and vice versa.

Intermodal rail traffic over Venice has increased markedly this year, thanks to the port authority expanding the Marghera Scalo railway terminal and doubling trackage in support of the new ferry terminal.

Grimaldi is involved in a similar agreement involving the ports of Venice and Rostock.