Closure of the Brenner: Kombiverkehr’s number one issue of 2012

Kombiverkehr KG (Frankfurt) felt the consequences of the bottlenecks with wagons for cranable semitrailers and terminals for combined transport in 2011
 
The closure of the Brenner Pass is the number one issue for Kombiverkehr KG (Frankfurt) in 2012. "We are able to run almost all our trains because we spent a long time in close and intensive preparations with partners and customers. Nevertheless, the effects of the additional closures on the Gotthard route, which are still ongoing, have exacerbated the situation with the Brenner Pass. While the line is reduced to single-track operation, additional trains that were originally to be diverted via the Gotthard route now have to be handled via the Brenner Pass," Robert Breuhahn and Armin Riedl, managing directors, explained at the company shareholders‘ meeting in Frankfurt.
 
"Although we had, until as late as May, assumed that the trend in volumes for the 2012 financial year would be on the positive side despite the announcement of construction work on the Brenner Pass, we have to concede today that this will now be very difficult to achieve due to the ongoing closure of the Gotthard route and the consequences this is having," they added regretfully.
 
The company is positive that this year it will be able to eliminate the capacity bottlenecks that hampered the growth of Combined Transport in 2011. Work to expand the extremely busy CT terminals in Ludwigshafen, Cologne and Hamburg will come to an end in the new few months, for instance, while expansion of the München-Riem terminal was completed in December 2011. In addition, the first tranche of the 100 wagons ordered for cranable semitrailers will be delivered from September. The remaining type T 3000 megatrailer pocket wagons have been promised for the start of 2013. There is also growth potential on international transport axes such as the routes between Germany and Poland, Germany and Romania, Germany and the Netherlands and between Poland and Italy.
 
In the last financial year Kombiverkehr KG relieved the environment at a record level. By shifting 972,600 truck consignments to rail – up 4.2 per cent on the previous year – it has helped to cut CO2 emissions by 1.046 million tons. In terms of sales, the company recorded an increase of 11.9 per cent to EUR 430 million, just below record of 2008. "Environmental relief, growth in shipments and sales could have been even better in 2011 if we had not been hampered by bottlenecks with wagons for cranable semitrailers and terminals," said Robert Breuhahn. 
 
The volume of Kombiverkehr’s international shipments in 2011 again grew faster than that of domestic shipments. Within Germany the number of shipments climbed 3.7 per cent to 228,215 truck consignments, while Kombiverkehr recorded a rise of 4.4 per cent to 744,385 consignments on international services. In 2011 the company recorded the strongest increases in services with France (up 40.1 per cent to 5,061 consignments), the Netherlands (up 38.1 per cent to 57,840 consignments) and Central and Eastern Europe (up 14.5 per cent to 120,964 consignments). In Eastern Europe the Czech Republic, a relative newcomer to CT, saw particularly positive growth of 38.6 per cent and 23,057 consignments.

Quelle: LogEastics

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