• Strikes and market conditions in Germany and Europe affect growth in traffic in 2014

• Successful start to 2015: increased demand and new train and ferry services

(Frankfurt/Main, 2 February 2015) Having recorded a fall in its earnings from transport services (-1.4 per cent) last year with 924,694 truck consignments (1.85 million TEU) as a result of strikes and market conditions, Frankfurt-based Kombiverkehr KG, which operates Europe’s biggest network for shifting freight from road to rail, expects 2015 to bring the sort of growth it saw in previous years and an increase in the volume of consignments. “Even though the gap between the prices of intermodal transport and end-to-end road haulage is growing a little wider due to the rising costs of electricity and lines on the one hand and relatively low diesel prices as well as a reduction in tolls on the other, we are still confident that we will achieve positive overall results once again this year,” said Robert Breuhahn, managing director of the Frankfurt-based company. “We laid good foundations for sustained growth at the beginning of the year by adding a large number of new services and we were pleased to see rising demand lead to an increase in the volume of business.”

The two business units of National and International Transport were affected by strikes and market conditions in equal measure in 2014. However, the number of consignments differed in terms of growth: In the case of transport services within Germany, including the Baltic Sea ports of Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock, the company recorded a fall of 9.1 per cent with 268,376 national truck consignments, due in particular to mass walkouts by train drivers of the GDL union in the last quarter of 2014 and to a slowdown in economic growth in Germany, especially in the second half of the year. The international volume of transport was affected by the persistent stagnation in the European Economic Area and by the effects of strikes in Italy, Spain and France, although it ultimately held its ground with 656,319 transported containers, swap bodies and semi-trailers, which equates to an increase in consignments of 2.2 per cent. Internationally, therefore, Kombiverkehr has grown for the second year in succession.

Kombiverkehr has now expanded the existing network of terminal-terminal services by adding another 20 weekly train and ferry departures. On 14 January, in cooperation with its partner HUPAC, Kombiverkehr introduced a new shuttle train between Cologne-Eifeltor and Malmö CT terminal via the fixed crossing, which operates four times a week in each direction for loading units with a full P400 profile. Since 28 January, the Frankfurt-based company has offered customers in the forwarding and logistics industry an additional train product to and from Malmö between the Dutch terminal of Coevorden/Bad Bentheim and Malmö. The shuttle train operates three times a week and covers the 900-kilometre section of railway in less than 24 hours. The new service is a joint project by Kombiverkehr, EuroTerminal Coevorden and Bentheimer Eisenbahn. In addition, back on 1 January a new twice-weekly ferry link to and from Lavrio in the region of Attica – situated around 60 kilometres south of Athens – was added to the range of intermodal services to Greece, which has existed as a rail-ferry combination via Trieste since the end of 2012, whilst the number of departures by trains used in Baltic Sea transport services between Ludwigshafen KTL and Lübeck-Skandinavienkai was upped from five to six on 17 January.

Kombiverkehr, press photo, free for reproduction

By shifting freight onto the railways, Kombiverkehr and its customers helped to remove over one million tonnes of the greenhouse gas CO2 from the environment in 2014.

The press photo can be downloaded here.

About Kombiverkehr:
Founded in 1969, as Europe's number 1 operator in intermodal transport Kombiverkehr Deutsche Gesellschaft für kombinierten Güterverkehr mbH & Co KG develops, organises and markets an international rail network that offers forwarders and transport companies an intelligent combination of the advantages of road, rail and ship. Kombiverkehr provides over 170 train departures with more than 15,000 connections for the cost-effective, secure and environmentally friendly transport of freight across Europe every night. The limited partnership is owned by some 230 national and international forwarders and transport companies as well as DB Mobility Logistics AG. Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, the company shifted a total of 924,694 million truck consignments (1.85 million TEU) from road to rail in 2014, saving the environment over one million tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide emissions. In 2013 the 148 full-time equivalent staff achieved sales of 425 million euro.

Contact for more information and picture material:
Kombiverkehr, Corporate Communications and Sales Support Manager, Jan Weiser
Phone +49 69/7 95 05-1 42, fax +49 69/7 95 05-1 49
e-mail jweiser@kombiverkehr.de