PAS to invest €70m in new rail freight terminal

The Marseilles and Strasbourg port authorities have entered a partnership agreement to strengthen the multimodal offer of sea, river and rail links serving the hinterland of France’s north-south axis

The Port of Strasbourg (PAS) has officially opened its new trimodal container terminal at Lauterbourg and the associated 48-ha R3FLEX logistics zone. It is 15 years since the last container terminal on the Upper Rhine was opened – and that was PAS’s Nord terminal.

The French “standard” for inland navigation was established in the middle of the 19th century by Charles de Freycinet. He set the lock sizes at 40m long by 5.2m wide, and so “Freycinet” barges have been limited to a maximum of 38.5m length and 5m beam, with a carrying capacity of between 300t and 500t. Freight traffic on Freycinet canals has gradually declined, but they continue to be supported by the French inland waterways authority, VNF.

ECT will lose at least 400,000 TEU/year as MSC shifts its east-west traffic to APM Terminals Rotterdam on Maasvlakte I

After two and a half years of construction work, the new multimodal platform at France’s biggest container port, Le Havre, is set to open before the end of 2014.

Rail operator Naviland Cargo is lifting the frequency of its Marseilles Fos-Strasbourg service from three to five round trips per week by the end of the year