LORO: Customer-oriented rail solution relieves the Antwerp ring and European roads

Lineas Intermodal, the combined goods transport operator of the Belgian railway company Lineas, transported more than 25,000 containers in the first nine months of this year with LORO, a highly frequent rail connexion between the Antwerp left and right Scheldt  banks  (= 55% growth compared with the 16,000 containers in the last eight months of 2016). This means 25,000 fewer trucks on the Antwerp ring road. Furthermore, half of those containers are forwarded to an international destination by train. Lineas is therefore actively working on the Modal Shift ambition with this rail solution too.

LORO improves mobility in and around Antwerp:  Number of round trips increased
It goes without saying that the Antwerp ring road is a traffic junction where users run a high risk of getting stuck in a traffic jam.  Every road user can see that there is an enormous  number of trucks on the road. The number of infrastructure works in and around Antwerp will moreover increase further in the coming weeks and months and that is bound to cause additional traffic problems. In addition, forwarders are regularly confronted with congestion in the Antwerp terminals.

In order to help address this increasing mobility problem for its customers, Lineas launched LORO in April of last year. This highly frequent rail connection links the left and right banks of the Scheldt daily. LORO transported 25,000 containers from January to September. Lineas intermodal increased the number of round trips even further with extra services from quays 1700 and 1742.

Sam Bruynseels, Managing Director Lineas Intermodal: “LORO addresses a very topical demand from many shippers. Rail provides a more reliable solution than road transport here, especially for this short distance. We see enormous potential for this product, and there is still sufficient capacity for LORO to grow even more. We hope to transport 35,000 containers this year.”

LORO facilitates modal shift to rail
Road hauliers, shipping companies and forwarders opt more frequently for rail not only for local transport, but also for further international destinations.  The number of containers transported to such international destinations by LORO grew by 25% at the beginning of this year, to 50%.  Most containers travel further via the Lineas Green Xpress Network – a network of direct, frequent rail links between European economic centres.  Containers from Antwerp go mainly to Ludwigshafen, Switzerland and Austria, but also to the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Customers are very satisfied with the service, speed and punctuality of the operations (local and international alike). Thanks to this offer, Lineas is actually proceeding with the modal shift to rail. Lineas is firmly committed to expanding the Green Xpress Network further. The most recent development is a connection to Graz (via Wels).  In addition, a number of new destinations by rail are being prepared for launch in the beginning of next year.