SBB Cargo and Hupac establish joint rail company
SBB Cargo International aims at cost leadership in transalpine transit between Germany and Italy A new provider arises in the European rail transport market. SBB Cargo and the intermodal operator Hupac are jointly founding an independent, new company to handle transalpine freight transit between Germany and Italy. A clockface production system and lean structures shall make the new company the cost leader on the north-south corridor. The new joint venture named SBB Cargo International is to start operating at the beginning of 2011 with 480 employees and 109 main-line locomotives. The enterprise is planned to generate total sales of CHF 300 million per year – traction services for intermodal transport operators will account for about 80 per cent thereof – and break even by 2013. SBB Cargo is holding 75 per cent of the share capital. Hupac has 25 per cent. The business model of the new carrier is a novelty within rail cargo transport. Hupac’s stake in the company means that customers of intermodal transport will bear some of the responsibility for the strategy and development of a railway company. The spin-off will result in changes at the current SBB Cargo AG. It will focus on domestic traffic within Switzerland and the carriage of import and export consignments in alliance with other railfreight companies. The current wagonload service network will continue to operate at largely the same scale as now. Quelle: LogEastics |