Gothenburg shows the way with rail

The port of Gothenburg has significantly increased the proportion of traffic moving by rail. At a time when the rest of Europe is struggling to make rail transport more successful compared to road, the proportion of the port's hinterland traffic moving by rail recently reached 60%.

Six years ago it was just 23%. In comparison, Hamburg's proportion last year was 33%, and it was second only to Bremerhaven in terms of rail success in northern Europe.

Gothenburg's success stems from the electrification of its port railway infrastructure in 2005, and the dominance of Maersk Line, which remains very pro-rail. This year Maersk Line is expected to carry around 75% of the port's total traffic moving by rail.

Commenting on this position, Patrick Berggren, cluster operations manager for the Nordic region, enthused: 'Road has for a long time been the conventional mode of transporting goods, and as recently as 2005, our split was approximately 50/50. Today the split is around 75%, which is positive.'

Gothenburg handles around 70% of Sweden's total container traffic and currently offers 24 rail shuttle services. It is not clear how these have helped the port to grow its container traffic, but its rail traffic increased by 5.2% in the first half of the year, up to 183,000TEU.

Last year the gateway's total container traffic reached 862,500TEU, including cargo staying in the port area or awaiting transhipment.