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The ban of pocket wagons on semi-trailers in Denmark is still ongoing, causing immense issues to the intermodal and broader rail freight sector. The ban that was supposed to last around three weeks is now in place for three months already, and operators active in Scandinavia are pounding the alarm since their viability is in jeopardy. Skanerail, a rail operator connecting Coevorden in the Netherlands with Malmö in Sweden and among the most heavily impacted companies, shared the struggles and uncertainty it faces.
The pocket wagon ban initially started from Denmark’s Great Belt Bridge after a safety incident on 13 January involving one of DB Cargo’s trains. Then, around 27 January, it applied to the country’s whole since investigations concerning the incident’s cause had not been concluded. Companies like Hupac, DB Cargo Scandinavia and Hector Rail immediately expressed their concerns over the impact that such a move could have business-wise.
Shortly after, Akos Ersek from UIRR described in RailFreight Live the weekly losses of operators due to this development. Only in early February, just a couple of weeks after the ban, operators collectively lost around one million euros per week. Currently, a few months later, the situation seems to constitute a dead-end for companies that are subject to a survival race.
Scandinavia cancelled
One such company affected is Skanerail. After years of hurdles, it had managed to establish a stable three times per week connection with Malmö. As of 1 April 2021, the company was planning to add one extra weekly service on the corridor with the potential of reaching five trips per week if it proved stable. However, the pocket wagon ban overturned all its plans, explained Henri Leemans, who established the connection.
Due to the restrictions, Skanerail didn’t manage to add more itineraries to its schedule. On top of that, it faces significant problems with its existing connections that struggle on the limit of unfeasibility. As Lambert van Dieren from Skanerail explained, the company still has three weekly connections to Malmö. Even so, they are never fully loaded since the maximum capacity they reach is about 60 per cent. Volumes of transported containers also reach an all-time low with just 55 per cent of capacities utilised. Understandably, these facts translate to substantial financial losses. Read more
Source: RAILFREIGHT
