CARGONET expands CT between Norway and Sweden 04/10/22

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Source: https://dagenslogistik.se/cargonet-utokar-kombitrafiken-mellan-norge-och-sverige/

 

Norska Cargonet has major expansion plans for freight train traffic between Norway and Sweden. Among other things, the traffic from Oslo to Malmö/Trelleborg, Halmstad and Gothenburg is being expanded, and a completely new train shuttle is planned to Eskilstuna, starting this spring.

- We see a growing demand for train transport from customers, says Carl Fredrik Karlsen, commercial director at Cargonet.

Carl Fredrik Karlsen. Photo Cargonet

Cargonet is a Norwegian railway company that operates combined transport in Norway and Sweden. The company was founded in 2002 by Green Cargo and NSB, and is today 100 percent owned by state-owned Vy (formerly NSB). Until 2011, Cargonet was a major player in the Swedish combined transport market, with a large range of train commutes both nationally and internationally. In autumn 2011, however, the company left the Swedish market in one fell swoop, as it could not get profitability in the business, and after that it has been rather quiet from the Norwegian combi player, which mainly ran national traffic in Norway.

But in 2020, Cargonet once again started the Sweden traffic, with a weekly shuttle between Alnabru/Oslo and the port of Gothenburg, a shuttle that will have daily departures, and then they started new train shuttles to Halmstad, Malmö and Trelleborg.

- We have doubled the traffic between Oslo and Malmö/Trelleborg in the past year to ten departures per week, and from the turn of the year the plan is to further expand the offer. We will increase the number of departures to Halmstad and the port of Gothenburg and further increase capacity between Oslo and Malmö/ Trelleborg, says Carl Fredrik Karlsen, commercial director at Cargonet.

Planning a train commute to Eskilstuna

In the spring, the plan is to also start a new train shuttle between Alnabru and Eskilstuna, which is planned to start in the spring of 2023.

- There are large flows between these two regions, but today a very small percentage of that goods goes by train, most of it is transported by truck between Norway and Sweden. But we see a growing demand for rail transport from customers.

The hope is to start the train shuttle between Eskilstuna and Alnabru during Q2 2023, with five departures a week in each direction from the start.

Cross-border combi traffic is increasing between Norway and Sweden. Photo Cargonet.

- We don't have all the customer agreements in place for the shuttle yet, but we expect that the shuttle will go around commercially. There is a lot happening on the logistics side in Eskilstuna now, with large new warehouse establishments, where there should be a need for increased train traffic between Norway and Mälardalen in the future as well.

Carl Fredrik Karlsen also sees an opportunity to expand the train solution so that it can also connect Norway and Finland in the long term.

- There are plans to establish a rail freight line between Eskilstuna and Stockholm Norvik's port. If those plans become reality, we can create a train solution from Norway to Finland, where Eskilstuna will be a hub.

Strong growth

The demand for train transport is growing in Norway, between 2020 and 2021 freight transport by rail increased by 12 percent in the country, according to Bane NOR .

We are experiencing good growth in Norway for intermodal rail transport, but the growth is even greater in cross-border traffic

- We are experiencing good growth in Norway for intermodal train transport, but the growth is even greater in cross-border traffic. That is why we are increasing our range now, in step with the growing interest in these transport solutions, says Carl Fredrik Karlsen.

By Hilda Hultén

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