CargoBeamer and BLS Cargo are capable, for the first time, to cross the alps on the Gotthard-route with semi-trailers up to 4 meters high. CargoBeamer offers three round trips per week between Cologne and Melzo/Italy with about three hundred trains p.a.
The CargoBeamer train can transport semi-trailers of any kind up to 4 meters in height, even if they are not suitable for cranes. This includes cooling trailers as well as sliding-floor-, silo-, and compartment trailers. Until now, this kind of traffic on that route was only possible on the road. We provide three roundtrips per week with up to 28 freight cars per train. The trailers are loaded/unloaded in the new Cologne-terminal “Köln-Nord” and in the terminal Melzo in Italy.
BLS Cargo will guarantee sufficient traction over the entire connection. BLS Cargo cooperates with railway partners in Germany and Italy. “We are most interested to explore this segment of new innovative railcar technology with our traction supply” explains Dirk Stahl, CEO of BLS Cargo AG. “The transport options offered by CargoBeamer are an interesting supplement to the existing ones, namely; in unaccompanied combined transport and the trains of the rolling autobahn.”
The transport is made possible by the significantly reduced installation height of the CargoBeamer wagons. Thus the demanded profile for this route can be met to date. Test rides over several days proved this already at the beginning of 2014.
750,000 semi-trailers cross the Swiss Alps every year. This reveals an enormous economical and ecological potential, because our new form of traffic offers an effective shift of transport from road to rail.