From yesterday's press (I understand)
Lloyds List - CMA CGM signs two-year rail deal with DB Schenker at Southampton
http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/sector/ports-and-logistics/article368643.ece
Move to carry high cube boxes on conventional train wagons persuades French line to send more than 25,000 containers via UK port per year
The £60m ($98m) track gauge upgrade for UK south coast container hub Southampton, allowing high cube 9ft 6in maritime boxes to travel on conventional rail wagons, is already paying back on its investment.
French container line CMA CGM last week signed a two-year contract to send more than 25,000 boxes a year on DB Schenker Rail (UK) intermodal services.
German-owned DB Schenker has three trains a day, operating five times a week, which will deliver in each direction containers from the port of Southampton to inland terminals at Birmingham, Manchester Trafford Park and Wakefield.
Privately, DB Schenker is making much of the deal, emphasising that the contract marks new business secured in competition from rival operator Freightliner, the latter with an estimated 80% marketshre of container rail freight at Southampton.
It said in a statement: The agreement is the largest UK container contract ever signed by DB Schenker Rail and reflects the position the company has gained as a major supplier to this market.
DB Schenker, still known fondly to many as EWS, says that volumes are however expected to exceed the initial level of 25,000 containers as it works jointly with CMA CGM the worlds third largest box line on adding freight trains as demand dictates.
Freightliner sources indicated that it expects to maintain a significant level of its existing business from the French carrier, pointing out that the DB Schenker deal relates to high cube boxes that previously would have bypassed Southampton because of track and capacity contstraints to be feedered back to the UK.
The traffic win also refers, indicated the same sources, to modal switch traffic that will now use the upgraded rail link out of Southampton rather than going by truck, although there will be an increase in carrier haulage.
A spokesperson for CMA CGM at the Marseille head office said: There shall be some minor migration from the West Coast Feeder (between Le Havre Liverpool) but in the main this represents a switch of modality from truck to rail and also an increase in carrier haulage.
The spokesperson added: This approach is entirely consistent with our environmental aims and objectives as it will allow the group to increase its use of rail on distance work.
CMA CGM is willing to take a greater percentage of imports as carrier haulage as it will provide more opportunities for rail and tip-and-reload via truck, improving overall transport efficiencies and performance through CMA CGM control.
The group continues to promote Intermodal transportation, which offers its customers an efficient, cleaner and complete door-to-door service.
The rail upgrade has not been without controversy, with UK freight forwarders group Bifa asking the Office of Fair Trading to review a £3 per box surcharge imposed by port owner ABP to defray its 10% contribution to the track upgrade.
The enhancements essentially lowering track through tunnels and under bridges mean that high cube boxes, increasingly the norm in international maritime trade, can now reach major consumer destinations on standard wagons. In the past they had to use special low-slung rail wagons which are expensive to make, in short supply and have a high maintenance cost.
DB Schenker Rail (UK) chief executive Alain Thauvette said: The container market is the fastest growing sector of the rail freight industry. With each intermodal freight train capable of removing up to 70 lorries from the road network, this is also good news for reducing both carbon emissions and road congestion levels.
