All Rail articles – Page 21
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Feature
French strikes cripple car shipments
French strike action over pension reforms, which began last week and included the suspension of rail services by SNCF staff, has brought vehicle movements by rail to a virtual standstill. “For all intents and purposes it can be considered zero,” confirmed Alain Leray, deputy managing director at STVA, the vehicle ...
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Global news in brief
GM confirms closure of AntwerpDespite speculation last week that GM Europe was in talks with China’s Geely over the future of its Opel plant in Antwerp, the company confirmed this week that the plant will close and that there will be no further negotiations for vehicle assembly there beyond the ...
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Global news in brief
SNCF Fret losing millions in French disputeSNCF Fret is suffering serious disruption this week as French unions led by SNCF workers continue the strike action begun yesterday in protest over the French government’s pensions reform bill. The company is estimated to be losing €20m ($28m) a day in lost revenue ...
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DB merges automotive units
Deutsche Bahn is merging two of its existing automotive subsidiaries operating under the DB Schenker Rail division in the first quarter of 2011. ATG Autotransportlogistic and Schenker Automotive RailNet will now be managed as a single unit by the Automotive Market Unit in Europe called DB Schenker Rail Automotive. It ...
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The road to 4m cars is paved with rail
The road remains the only way to goTrailers of all different sizesMature logistics: using regional stockyardsWith the Indian market on pace to surpass 4m units a year in the next five years, manufacturers are increasingly dissatisfied with the low standard of vehicle distribution, and want to see a viable rail ...
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Audi first to use green rail service from DB
Audi has started using DB Schenker Rail’s Eco Plus CO2-free rail freight service for shipment of vehicles from its Ingolstadt plant in Germany to the port of Emden on the north coast of the country. It is the first company in Germany to use the Eco Plus service and expects ...
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Norfolk Southern gets awards for quality marks
Norfolk Southern’s Automotive Distribution Group has received two Automotive Quality Excellence Awards for outstanding service from the Association of American Railroads (AAR). The awards are based on rigorous, unannounced audits of rail-served automotive facilities throughout North America. Norfolk Southern won the Highest Quality Review Score for Destination Facilities by achieving ...
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DB Schenker moves management to Frankfurt
German rail provider Deutsche Bahn is centralising the management teams of its Transportation and Logistics division – DB Schenker – in Frankfurt am Main over the next two years. The decision, recently taken by the DB Mobility Logistics management board, will mean the 330 members of the teams of the ...
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DB and SNCF end joint holding in Transfesa
The complex relationship between the Deutsche Bahn and SNCF subsidiaries involved in automotive parts and finished vehicle transport will become a lot simpler with the ending of the cross shareholding set up that has existed between the two rail operators. DB Schenker, the transportation and logistics division of Deutsche Bahn, ...
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Downturn puts wagon innovations on hold
Short contracts hamper investmentIndia: land of opportunityChanging gear in a volatile marketCrossing borders in EuropeThe global economic downturn has killed off orders for new specialist car carrier rail wagons, even though industry experts agree there is a lot of scope to improve the design of this equipment to better serve ...
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Adampol launches rail service from Poland
Polish finished vehicle carrier Adampol has launched a new regular rail service from the logistics centre in owns and operates in Malaszewicze on the eastern Polish border with Belarus for shipment of vehicles to Eastern Europe. Tuesday (29 June) saw the first loading, which will take Suzuki vehicles between the ...
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Transnet strike threatens South African carmakers
As the strike action affecting Transnet’s South African logistics network heads toward the end of its second week with no resolution in sight, there are increasing concerns amongst the country’s carmakers that production and logistics will be badly affected. The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) and the ...
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Rail freight in France at standstill for fortnight
As the rail strike in France affecting both passenger and freight movements on the state-owned SNCF network enters its third week, carmakers and logistics providers are having to rely on road for movements of finished vehicles and parts, meaning added cost at a time when the industry is looking for ...
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RETRACK research moves vehicles to rail
A new weekly rail service, which will carry finished vehicles and automotive parts along with agribulk and chemical products between Cologne in Germany and Györ, Hungary, has been launched as part of a European research project on innovative rail freight concepts. The project, called RETRACK (REorganisation of Transport networks by ...
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Canadian govt takes action over CN dispute
Canada’s federal government imposed back-to-work legislation on Monday for 1,700 locomotive engineers at Canadian National Railway (CN), the country’s largest freight operator, who are striking over contract and wage issues. The strike action, which began at midnight last Saturday, has threatened vehicle movements in the country, with CN forced to ...
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Honda imports to benefit from rail project
Following last week’s news that Honda is shifting 80% of its imports from San Diego to the Port of Richmond (read more here), the port has now broken ground on a $40m rail infrastructure development that will allow the carmaker to move more than 145,000 vehicles through the port per ...
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Union Pacific encourages used cars on to rail
Union Pacific Railroad has rebranded its Insight Network Transportation subsidiary and website in an attempt to attract more cross-country used car freight onto its trains. With the new name ShipCarsNow, the company plans to establish a network of dealerships served by an intermodal rail and road service and change the ...
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Nano is moving by rail
Indian carmaker Tata, which handed over the keys to its first Nano customer earlier this month, has begun deliveries in earnest of the world’s cheapest new car, and has also begun moving the car by rail, according Prem K Verma, the CEO of Tata Motors Limited Distribution Company (TMLD), the ...
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Indian JV looks at rail for vehicle moves
NYK Line’s Indian arm has signed a 50:50 joint venture agreement with India’s state-owned Container Corp (Concor) to handle vehicle movements by rail. The company will initially move vehicles owned by Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai on a leg between Delhi and Chennai in dedicated freight wagons. It will also invest ...
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Two-tier wagon to revolutionise Indian logistics
A joint venture of rail experts is planning to deliver a new two-tier wagon for car transport in India that could see carmakers dramatically cut their logistics costs. Advanced engineering and rail logistics provider Focal Earth has been working with French double-deck wagon maker AFR and India’s Texmaco, the ...