Spring launch for Brittany Ferries new rail freight ‘motorway’

Photo: Modalohr

The launch of Brittany Ferries' long-awaited rail freight 'motorway' service for unaccompanied trailers, running between Cherbourg and Bayonne-Mouguerre, near the Spanish border, moved a step closer this week. After a successful test run, a 550-metre train of 15 Modalohr-type wagons arrived at the new combined road-rail terminal at the Normandy port. Further trials are planned for March, with the commercial launch of the rail freight motorway service scheduled to follow shortly after.

Brittany Ferries' aim is to connect markets in France, the UK, Ireland and Spain, and the new service will enable the transfer of trailers arriving by ferry in Cherbourg from the UK and Ireland onto trains, instead of making the journey of around 1,000km to Bayonne-Mouguerre and on to northern Spain by road.

And trailer traffic from Bayonne-Mouguerre for Cherbourg and onward to the UK and Ireland will also benefit from a shift from road to rail. "The service will be gradually ramped up over 2025 from three return trips in the first month to five return trips a week," project manager Philippe Norindr told The Loadstar. Traction will be provided by Captrain France, part of Rail Logistics Europe, the umbrella structure for French state operator SNCF's rail freight subsidiaries, he added.

Southbound trains will depart from Cherbourg at around 7pm, arriving in Bayonne-Mouguerre the following day at 11am. Each train will comprise up to 21 Modalohr wagons with double pockets, allowing 42 unaccompanied trailers to be transported. Potentially, an estimated 25,000 trucks a year could be taken off the roads, as a result of the piggyback, or "ferroutage", service.

The rail motorway brought investment of just over EUR17m, the Normandy ports group contributing the lion's share, spending almost EUR13m on the construction of the combi terminal in Cherbourg. At the other end French state aid of EUR19m funded construction of a 'combi' freight terminal in Mouguerre. The project has also focused on rail infrastructure modernisation and entailed adapting 2.5km of track linking the port to the national rail network, with switches installed and sleepers and ballast renewed.

It will mark the return of rail freight to the port of Cherbourg - until 2008, Toyota cars were transported by ship from England to Cherbourg before being transferred to train for distribution in Europe.

References

1. ^ Stuart Todd (theloadstar.com)