Poland breaks record with heaviest intermodal train

Originating from Euroterminal Slawkow and with DCT Gdansk Terminal as its final destination, an intermodal train wrote history as the heaviest ever in Polish freight transport. It left Slawkow carrying ninety 20-foot containers (90 TEUs overall), with a total weight of 3,335.75 tones.

PKP Cargo SA and PKP Cargo Connect organised the service together with Maersk. Following the trip between the two Polish terminals, the train’s cargo was then transhipped to one of Maersk’s container ships at the Port of Gdansk.

Understandably, commissioning such heavy intermodal trains is not something usual. Most of this kind of trains weight less than 2,000 tonnes under normal conditions. Thus, PKP Cargo had to obtain special passage approvals from the Polish Railways, necessary for specific parts of the route.

Moreover, PKP Cargo had to use special resources in terms of equipment and loading processes due to the service’s distinctive characteristics. Nevertheless, with all these different parties’ involvement and good cooperation, Poland’s heaviest intermodal train trip became a reality, which also contributed to reducing CO2 footprint approximately by 5 to 9 per cent, compared to the conventional transport type of the cargo.

The cooperation of the PKP Cargo Group with AP Møller – Mærsk A / S has been going on for many years and is of strategic importance for the development of intermodal transport, as one of its main assumptions is the constant increase in container transport in the North-South corridor and the constant improvement of quality in the organization of these services.

Source: kolejowyportal.pl