TX Logistik expands Kaldenkirchen-Malmö connection

TX Logistik AG is increasing the frequency of its intermodal connection between the Lower Rhine and Sweden by two round trips. Starting on 5th July 2021, the rail freight logistics company, which is part of the Mercitalia Group (Gruppo FS Italiane), will run five times a week from Kaldenkirchen in the Viersen district (North Rhine-Westphalia) to Malmö and back. The transports will be mainly trailers loaded with goods of all kinds.

The Railterminal in Kaldenkirchen is just a few hundred meters from the German-Dutch border and is centrally located in the triangle between Venlo, Düsseldorf and the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area. According to TX Logistik, there is a continuing demand for rail freight transport in this economically important region, as well as in the Scandinavian region. The fact that the Kaldenkirchen-Malmö connection could be expanded just nine months after its launch shows that this corridor is important for the exchange of goods between Western and Northern Europe.

On the entire relation, all services are produced by TX under its own management with its own locomotive drivers and its own equipment. The route runs from Kaldenkirchen via Padborg and Copenhagen to the CMP terminal in Malmö. At the German-Danish border in Padborg, the locomotive drivers are changed, and the Swedish subsidiary TX Logistik AB takes over the traction there.

On the route over the Storebælt and Öresund bridges, specially equipped multi-system locomotives are used, which TX is one of the few companies to have in its fleet. Middle of June, TX Logistik received permission from the Danish supervisory authority to use the Storebælt Bridge for such transports again after it was generally closed to all transports of trailers in pocket wagons from January. The company was certified as fulfilling all official requirements for the safe transport of semi-trailers by rail.

The connection is operated as an open train system. Up to 38 semi-trailers can fit on one train – a shift that will lead to significant savings in CO2 emissions. In addition to the two new services, TX Logistik will continue to serve the terminal in Eskilstuna, around 100 kilometers west of Stockholm, three times a week from Malmö. The rail logistics company thus supplements the domestic network with the national line between Trelleborg, Malmö and Eskilstuna, which currently operates seven round trips per week.