• Northern Europe: New trains improve services to and from Malmö as well as additional terminals in Sweden and Norway

• Baltic Sea ports: More frequent departures between Ludwigshafen KTL and Lübeck-Skandinavienkai

• Greece: New ferry service to the port of Lavrio specifically for hazardous goods

(Frankfurt/Main, 16 January 2015) Kombiverkehr, Europe's largest provider of intermodal transport solutions, is starting the year by expanding the eu.NETdirekt+ European network with new train products, extra capacity and the inclusion of a new ferry service in the Mediterranean. Kombiverkehr constantly implements new transport solutions with the aim of enabling freight forwarders and logistics companies to make the switch from road-only transport to the bimodal combination of road and rail or the trimodal interconnection of road, water and rail as easily and efficiently as possible," said Robert Breuhahn, managing director of the Frankfurt-based company. "Transport in northern Europe is the very area where we are responding to repeated requests from our customers to provide an alternative route across the Baltic Sea via a fixed link." Taken together, all the additions to the range of services provide for an extra 18 train and ferry departures a week in the Kombiverkehr network.

In conjunction with its partner HUPAC, Kombiverkehr is expanding the existing range of services to and from Sweden with a new shuttle train between Cologne-Eifeltor and Malmö CT terminal, which ran from south to north for the first time yesterday. Tank containers, swap bodies and semi-trailers with a full P/C 400 profile pass through the Flensburg and Copenhagen rail hubs to reach the Swedish coast via the Öresund Bridge. The timetable provides for four weekly departures in each direction: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Cologne, and Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Malmö. Not only is the new train an impressive twelve hours faster compared with previous journey times on the gateway service via Hamburg and Lübeck, it also provides more connection options within the network. The Swedish terminals in Göteborg and Stockholm and Oslo in Norway, among others, can thus be reached from Malmö by using the services provided by our partner Green Cargo. In Germany there are connections to and from Basel, Kornwestheim, Munich and Ulm. International onward shipments to France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, Greece and Turkey are possible.

Kombiverkehr will launch another train product to and from Malmö at the end of the month. The Grafschaft Bentheim region and the Dutch province of Drenthe will then be linked to the Kombiverkehr network with effect from 28 January. The new Coevorden/Bad Bentheim - Malmö v.v. multi-group train will cover the 900 kilometre stretch of railway in less than 24 hours three times a week in both directions. The new range of services is a joint project by Kombiverkehr, EuroTerminal Coevorden and Bentheimer Eisenbahn.

The number of departures on the Ludwigshafen KTL - Lübeck-Skandinavienkai route for national transport to and from the Baltic Sea ports is being increased. The shuttle train will operate six instead of five times a week from 17 January. The additional days of dispatch are Saturday from Ludwigshafen (close of acceptance 12:15), with collection starting in Lübeck at 08:10 on Sunday, and Monday from Lübeck (close of acceptance 21:15), with collection starting in Ludwigshafen at 10:30 on Tuesday. Forwarders have ferry connections to Sweden, Finland, Russia and the Baltic states from Lübeck-Skandinavienkai. End-to-end shipments by rail and ferry are possible with Kombiverkehr.

The range of intermodal services to Greece, which has taken the form of a rail-ferry combination between Patras, Trieste and various terminals in Germany since the end of 2012, was boosted by a new ferry link in the Mediterranean on 1 January. As well as the port of Patras, the port of Lavrio in the Attica region - situated around 60 kilometres to the south of Athens - is now connected with Trieste by ferry twice a week. The new ferry service is of particular significance to freight forwarders who mainly transport hazardous goods and consignments bound for Athens. This is because all hazardous goods classes apart from 1 and 7 are allowed on the cargo ferry operated by Alternative Transport A.S. Containers and semi-trailers can be delivered in the Athens region more cost-effectively from Lavrio than was previously the case from Patras due to the shorter distance. The new range of services can be extended if there is sufficient demand.


Kombiverkehr, press photo, free for reproduction

Since 14 January 2015 Frankfurt-based Kombiverkehr KG has provided a direct link between the Cologne Eifeltor terminal and Malmö in south Sweden. The new shuttle train operates four times a week in both directions via the Öresund Bridge.

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 937,671 million truck consignments (1.88 million TEU) from road to rail in 2013, 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