May 12 - ERS Railways has celebrated the second anniversary of its Rotterdam - Poznan shuttle service, and it has moved more than 25,000 truckloads on its intermodal connection since its inauguration.
"We see that our decision back in 2012 to open a regular intermodal connection between Western Poland and the Port of Rotterdam has proven to be the right one," says Frank Schuhholz, managing director of ERS Railways.
As of June 2014, the service will be upped from five-times a week to six.
ERS Railways explained that it can transport out-of-gauge cargo using open top containers, and that upcoming changes in the North and Baltic Sea regions where Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA) will be enforced from January 1, 2015, will drive further growth on its intermodal service.
Drewry Consultants estimates that costs will increase by a minimum of USD120.00 per teu on short sea services due to more expensive fuels, and due to the additional technical installations that will need to be equipped on the ships to meet the stricter sulphur exhaust limits.
"We sense that this topic has not been given enough attention yet amongst shippers as well as forwarders and logistic service providers," states John van den Broeke, responsible for sales in the Benelux region at ERS Railways.
Schuhholz added: "Given the short time frame until year-end to either accept higher costs per teu when choosing short sea transport or choose a competitive rail-based solution between Poland and Rotterdam, we at ERS expect that demand for our intermodal shuttle will further increase during the upcoming months."
