Tanjung Priok super port - WorldCargo News Online

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INTERMODAL
Horizontal transfer of trailer onto wagon bed
mum trailer weight of 37t. The structure
gauge clearance on the route is reported
to be P400/C400, so 4m high trailers can
be carried on the wagons, even though
the platform height is 320mm, 50mm
higher than a pocket wagon for conventional
unaccompanied combined transport.
Weidemann adds that a corresponding
P/C400 permit has to be issued by
the track authorities to the rail operators.
This was successfully executed for pilot
transports with the CargoBeamer wagons
in 2012 during which it transported
4m high trailers. The company is not
aware of any physical modifications required
to the upper or lower structure
gauge profiles on the line of route.
Weidemann adds that so far
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The “British” CargoGate terminal will be
located in Calais Premier logistics park
CargoBeamer has been almost completely
privately-funded. Support is available as
part of the EU’s Marco Polo programme
for the ESTRaB project, which covers
CargoBeamer transports between Rotterdam
and the Baltic including rail gauge
switching at the Poland/Lithuania border
and a CargoGate terminal in Lithuania.
This gauge switching facility is under
construction now. Lithuanian transportation
and energy company Achema is part
of the ESTRaB project.
High system costs
According to last year’s study by
KombiConsult for the UIRR, overall system
costs of CargoBeamer are ca. 40%
higher than the system costs of conventional
unaccompanied combined transport
(UCT) for semi-trailers loaded onto
pocket wagons by cranes or reach stackers.
This analysis was made in relation to
transalpine combined transport axes
through Switzerland (for review, see World-
Cargo News, February 2013, pp37-38).
CargoBeamer caters for standard noncranable
trailers, or around 80% of the
European semi-trailer market, which is
not capturable by lo-lo UCT. In this context,
however, Kombi-Consult posed an
important question for suppliers of horizontal
loading systems for non-cranable
semi-trailers, such as Cargo-Beamer,
Modalohr and Kockums Industrier.
When road transport firms procure
non-cranable semi-trailers, they do so
because they intend to use them in accompanied
over-the-road services; the
distances may be too short for combined
transport to compete, or they are not capable
of forwarding the trailers unaccompanied
by rail, as they do not have an organisation
at both ends of the rail leg or
the critical mass for regular shipments on
given corridors.
For a company that can systematically
and regularly make use of UCT, the extra
price for a cranable semi-trailer of
€1500-2000 will be amortised in a few
journeys and the extra tare of around 300
kgs is not really significant, especially as
these days most loads “cube out.”
In context
These are sharp points, but they have to
be seen in the context of established UCT
corridors. What about east-west trade
routes such as north east France-southern
Poland where there are no established
UCT corridors and where, up to now,
there has been no tradition of shipping
semi-trailers by rail and no alternative to
long haul road transport
East-west transit through Germany
and Germany-East Europe road transport
is becoming increasingly unacceptable to
German public opinion; the autobahns are
congested and there are too many accidents,
leading to huge tailbacks, extra
pollution and so on. Hans-Jürgen
Weidemann points to some key “drivers”
for CargoBeamer and the ability to use
standard trailers without any modification
is only the start.
Other key factors are the total transport
price, including “soft” issues such as
insurance, damage costs, wear on the truck
and driver, the shortage of long-distance
drivers, higher turnover with the same
number of trucks and drivers, compulsory
rest regulations (9h driving/11h
pause), autobahn truck bans on Sundays
and public holidays, congestion and pollution,
transport sustainability, and so on.
64
May 2013