LION Logistics uses roadrailLink in the transportation of semi-trailers to Ukraine

One of the cases of this year's new transports using the roadrailLink system (r2L) is a line across Poland operated by the German forwarding company LION Logistics. The latter is based in Forst, a town near Cottbus adjacent to the Polish border and located on the corridor used by freight traffic between the northern and central Germany and southern Poland and not far from the highway leading in a similar direction. In Forst, LION Logistics operates a terminal used so far not only for transshipment of containers, but also John Deere tractors and other agricultural machinery, manufactured in the USA, transported by rail from the port and destined further east direction.

The Forst terminal is directly adjacent to the company's headquarters and is next to the main railway line, but as a transshipment point for combined transport it has to a certain extent an improvised form of a paved area next to one track, which is the rest of the former longer siding. In 2020, LION Logistics opened a completely new modern terminal located approx. 70 km south of Forst, in Kodersdorf, near Görlitz, with a similarly convenient location on the main line and on the highway from Poland to Dresden. In addition, the terminal is closely adjacent to a large wood processing plant of the Austrian group HS Timber (formerly the Klausner Holz Sachsen plant), with a common siding connection to the public network. The forwarder itself has its own licenced undertaking LION Rail with authorization to operate freight transport in Germany; however, he is not currently using it.

At the beginning of this year, the forwarder LION Logistics succeeded in consolidating its transport orders to/from Ukraine into block trains of combined transport, for which it chose transport in road semi-trailers, taking into account the greater capacity compared to a 40-foot container. For placing semi-trailers on the railway, the forwarding company chose r2L, the system developed by Austrian company Vega International Car Transport & Logistic - Trading, which enables the transport of ordinary semi-trailers in standard T3000 pocket wagons. At the eastern end of the line, semi-trailers are reloaded at the Mostyska junction, which is on the Ukrainian side of the Medyka/Mostyska crossing, accessible on the 1,435 mm gauge. In Germany, the old Forst terminal is used.

Transports started in January 2024 and, according to LION Logistics, now run at a frequency of three pairs per week, for which four sets of 16 wagons each (i.e. each with a capacity of 32 semi-trailers) are deployed. The total transport time is 2.5 days, taking into account customs clearance at the Polish-Ukrainian border. For example, parts of the automotive industry or agricultural machinery are transported. Haulage is provided by Captrain Polska, and sister ITL Eisenbahn in Germany. Captrain Polska is one of the carriers that has a cooperation agreement with UZ. At the beginning of 2023, it began to provide shunting services and local movements in the 1,435 mm-gauge area of and between various transshipment locations and terminals between Mostyska and Medyka, and from the fall of 2023 it also deploys a powerful diesel locomotive here.