With 3 round trips a week, the shuttle will link the KTL terminal in Ludwigshafen – ideally situated to serve East-European regions – with the Port of Le Havre in 24 hours (departure day A/arrival day B). The service through Strasbourg doubles the frequency of rail shuttles between the port terminals in Le Havre and the port of Strasbourg.
This new rail service is not only designed for the shipping sector but also for companies involved in cross-continental traffic with the chemical and petrochemical industries in Le Havre. As indicated by Hervé Cornède, Commercial and Marketing Director for GPMH, “this service provides companies in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg with access to the major shipping lines calling at Le Havre and optimised transit times”.
As noted by Philippe Petit, CEO of Naviland Cargo; “For the second largest chemical and petrochemical industrial zone in Europe, the shuttle service provides a new means of transporting rail tanks and swap bodies”.
Transport services for dangerous goods, excluding storage, in strict compliance with the currently applicable regulations (ADR / RID) are also available. These services, which comply with the currently applicable EU regulations and international standards for quality and safety, are consistent with the objectives of the port of Le Havre.
Because the port of Le Havre is one of the few European ports capable of berthing giant containerships (capacity higher than 10,000+ TEU), the port – the leading French port for containers – offers highly efficient mass transport services for large volumes under optimum conditions.
The scale of Le Havre’s aims to develop mass transport services has been reflected in the creation of a Multimodal Terminal (road-river-rail) in the centre of the port. “It is a vital project we really need, because port calls by large ships, during which more than 2,000 TEU are loaded/unloaded, have to be processed using every kind of mode,” said Laurent Castaing. “Whether it concerns road or rail connections, the quality of the supply of inland services is vital for the attractiveness of a port like Le Havre, which has the capacity to handle 6 million TEU a year”.