The Swiss railway company will extend its services from Barcelona to Great Britain and Scandinavia between June and July

The Turkish logistics group Ekol Logistics has recently joined the Hupac service from the Morrot terminal in Barcelona, ​​to transport semi-trailers from the port of Tarragona to Antwerp (Belgium). The company has thus opted for the railroad to move the merchandise that arrives on the new Ro-Ro line that the Catalan port has established with Turkey, although the lack of international gauge to Tarragona forces, for the moment, to make the section to Barcelona by truck. Likewise, within the framework of the Transport Logistic event, the Tarragona port authority and the railway operator have opened the door to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the development plans for the Hupac network beyond Barcelona.

The railway operator has also announced during its day at Transport Logistic new connections to northern Europe from Barcelona for the months of June and July. Specifically, the company plans to extend its current connection between the Catalan capital and Antwerp (Antwerp) to Bruges (Zeebrugge), so that the merchandise can reach Great Britain and other short sea destinations by sea. "Despite Brexit, we are convinced that there will be many opportunities for the intermodal business," said Hupac Deputy General Manager, Alessandro Valenti. In this way, Hupac will use the five currently existing weekly frequencies to go further, as it will do with other destinations such as Gadki (Poland), which will also connect with Zeebrugge via Antwerp; o Brescia (Italy).

Likewise, the railway operator will increase the intermodality of Spain and Italy with Scandinavia in June. Specifically, in July it will enable three weekly frequencies between Cologne and Kiel, both in Germany, with the aim of reaching Gothenburg (Sweden) by sea. This connection will be available both domestically and internationally and will include the merchandise that enters from Barcelona and that is transported in the connection that it already has established with Busto (Italy). "We create synergies as an instrument of development", added Valenti.

On the other hand, the railway company has ensured that "we have experienced strong demand on many lines", as noted by the director of the Network in Southeast Europe, Renzo Capanni, and that "our infrastructures and flexibility are at the limit" . This need to increase capacities in its main corridors has led Hupac to make investments in central Europe, in actions that will be carried out "with the aim of always having 100% of the available infrastructure.

The director general  of the Swiss operator, Michail Strahlhut, has defended that "more connectivity implies more infrastructure in the correct area, but the first and easiest measure is to lengthen the trains". In this sense, he has estimated that “if we all have 740 meters in Europe, we suddenly have 16% more capacity”. In the last fiscal year, Hupac has moved 1.9 million teus and has operated 147 trains a day on its routes. "We are convinced that we can do more intermodal in Europe." The manager also recalled that "intermodal does not begin with the locomotive, but in the first and last mile."