Latvian railway launches new multimodal transport

Latvijas Dzelzceļš launched its first intermodal semi-trailer transport in order to gain a greater share of the market for freight transport of consignments bound for Western Europe.

The new service, designated GreenSwitch, is intended to support and facilitate the transition to a different mode of rail transport and to minimize pollution and other external costs of heavy movement of trucks across the country's road network. The company believes that logistics providers will choose the railway option to save toll costs and other charges for road haulers.

The LDz gives carriers the chance to shorten or eliminate their road transports by moving semi-trailers by rail without having to put the driver or tractor into service. The costs would be collected from their place of origin or from a nearby terminal and moved by Green Switch to dedicated LDz intermodal nodes at Liepāja or Ventspils ports. From there, they would be loaded on the Stena Line ferry for further movement to destinations in Germany or Scandinavia.

"In recent years, there has been really tough competition between transit corridors and freight carriers," said LDz Chairman Māris Kleinbergs. "Factors such as speed, predictability, resource efficiency, and environmental compliance play an increasingly important role in the decision of carriers and ships on the optimal mode of transport.

"The new LDz offer - the regular movement of semi-trailers by rail - will really serve as a kind of green crossing, and freight transport in Latvia will be more environmentally friendly, the volume of road traffic will be significantly reduced and carriers will be able to capitalize on unprecedented opportunities."