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03/15/2017

MOSOLF reactivates rail traffic to Düsseldorf

Kirchheim/Teck, 15 March 2017 – Following a break of five years, the MOSOLF Group is relaunching regular railway transport services at its business site in Düsseldorf. The test phase from January onwards had shown that the reactivation of the sidings would optimise sustainable transport flows in the long term. A weekly departure from the MOSOLF business location in Kippenheim, Southern Germany, to Düsseldorf has now been introduced as a fixed element in the automobile logistics specialist’s route plans.

The MOSOLF Group handled 67,000 vehicles at the port of Düsseldorf last year. There are plans to process far more than 70,000 in 2017. Inland waterway vessels move 49 percent of the total volume; in future, 17 percent will be transferred from road to rail services and trucks will handle the remaining 34 percent. The new rail concept therefore supports the move to switch traffic from the roads to sustainable modes of transport. The newly launched scheduled rail service means that more than 12,000 vehicles can be transported between the Black Forest and the Rhineland district by rail every year. The local transport fleet, which currently comprises 40 vehicle transporters, then deals with the final mile to customers from Düsseldorf.

“In addition to the environmental benefits of rail services compared to trucks – after all, a block train with 250 cars is roughly the equivalent of 35 truckloads, depending on the load factor – the concept also makes sense from a logistical point of view. The prompt, regional deliveries provided by the routes from Düsseldorf also enable more efficient and faster vehicle distribution,” says Wolfgang Göbel, Chief Sales Officer at the MOSOLF Group.

Peter Jacobs, Head of Railway Operations North at the port and railway operator RheinCargo, also underlines the importance of this means of transport for the port of Düsseldorf. “We’re delighted that MOSOLF is now once again focusing on railway services to a greater degree in Düsseldorf alongside its inland waterway operations and that we’re able to support the company both with port logistics and railway services. This is also strengthening the port of Düsseldorf, which offers the best links to the pulsating Rhine/Ruhr business region as a trimodal logistics site at the heart of the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia,” said Jacobs on the occasion of the first shipment.

The major focus of the multimodal hub at Düsseldorf will continue to involve handling goods arriving and departing by inland waterway vessels. MOSOLF transports cars and commercial vehicles to Rotterdam and Antwerp several times a week on board the MS “Terra” and its sister ship, the MS “Terra 2”.

The MOSOLF branch at Düsseldorf not only offers vehicle handling facilities, but also additional services. MOSOLF provides technical or optical value-added services for about one third of the vehicles. They include managing rental and fleet vehicles that are starting or completing their service, handover checks and wheel changes or installing special equipment.

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