Blue Combination.

Intermodal transport on the upswing.

„Train driver“ – this one was right at the top of the wish list for many of us when we were asked: “What do you want to be when you’ve grown up?” What we probably did not consider back then might have been the fact that today, this job brings with it a position to contribute personally to the reduction of emissions in cargo transport.

Fact is that intermodal transport leads to the significant reduction of emissions due to shifting cargo transhipment from road to rail and sea. Compared to road transport, rail traffic produces a lot less emissions in terms of fine particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and greenhouse gases. Intermodal transport (rail/ship) has gained more and more importance in the past couple of years. With the ferry connections to Scandinavia and to the Baltic States we even offer the cream of the crop in Kiel: the “multi-modal transport” (rail + sea + road) – and this is true for both, the economical and the ecological spirit.

Intermodal transport has grown in importance in recent years. In 2020, 33,000 freight units were transported by rail rather than road at the port of Kiel. The transport shift “from road to sea” is an important contribution to climate protection that takes cargo traffic off our national and international roads. To this end, we keep extending the share of railway transport together with our partners. So being a train driver is a job with a future!

The VEGA project in cooperation with CFL is an important puzzle piece of our BLUE PORT strategy. Only about 10 percent of the trailers on European roads dispose of the equipment required for railway transport, to be lifted by a crane and put down on a wagon. In order to do so, the trailers need to have reinforced biting edges. For the purpose of finding a solution for the remaining 90 percent of the road trailers and to allow for non-craneable trailers to be transhipped with intermodal transport, the VEGA system has been invented. The trailer can be steered onto this platform at ground level without using a ramp. It is the platform that is then lifted together with the trailer and put into the pocket wagon of the train.

Six Reasons Why.

Intermodal transport.

Trucks and trains make good teams and complement each other excellently. Any commodity stuffed in standardized containers or in craneable trailers can be transshipped from one mode of transport to the other in an uncomplicated way and therefore, the most advantageous characteristics of each mode of transport can be leveraged each time.
Vehicles used in intermodal transport can have an overall weight of 44 tons, i.e. 4 tons more than in standard road transports. Naturally, they are allowed to and have to participate in road traffic, but restricted: only from/to the next suitable intermodal traffic terminal. Furthermore, trucks operating on the “last mile” are excluded from the Sunday and bank holiday driving ban and they are exempted from vehicle taxes.
The volume of freight transport is growing. Using rail transport is a reasonable way to counter-act against the impending traffic collapse on the roads.
Not many freight dispatchers or recipients have a direct connection to a port or to the railway network nor do they have their own crane facilities. Intermodal transport terminals enable the transshipment of goods and there are cost advantages to be realized through pooling the cargo.
Trains do not need resting time and like to be on the tracks at night outside of the rush hours of passenger rail traffic. If timed correctly, freight trains are loaded in the evening and travel overnight to then arrive at their terminal of destination the following day.
There is a mid-sized five-digit figure describing the lack of truckers nowadays and this number exponentially growing. So it is only logical to count more on rail and sea transport and to deploy truckers in regional transport mainly. Maybe this is even a way to raise the interest of other employee groups in the profession of a trucker, especially for those who want or have to be with their families in the evenings and at weekends.

In order to further develop intermodal transport,
we are expanding.


Business Information

The intermodal railway shuttle offers regular rail connections for semi-trailers, swap-bodies and containers from Kiel to destinations in Germany and Europe-wide.

With its own track network and the shunting station in Kiel-Meimersdorf the PORT OF KIEL offers optimum requirements for rail transport from and to all port areas in Kiel.