Lineas and PCC Intermodal increase the frequency on their regular connection between Belgium and Poland. From 1st February, the Poland Xpress travels five times per week. The connection ensures 50% more capacity for conventional loads and over 600 TEU container space per week.
Lineas and PCC Intermodal started their partnership a year ago, with three open trains per week travelling from Antwerp over Frankfurt Oder to Poznan. There, the wagons disperse across Poland and the containers continue their journey via the extensive and regular network of PCC Intermodal. While PCC Intermodal ensures coverage in the most important Polish regions and Far East destinations, Lineas offers rail solutions to the rest of Europe such as Italy, France and Spain.
The Poland Xpress, launched at the beginning of 2020, was an immediate success. With services having started just before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the train proved to be a fast and reliable solution and alternative for border closures, traffic jams and congestions. Over the course of 2020, more than 200 trains transported goods between the countries. The continuous increase in demand led the partners to intensify the route from three to five round trips per week. Enlarged services start next Monday, 1st February.
In respect of that development, Lineas will offer 50% more capacity for conventional wagons per train, and PCCI’s containers capacity will increase to 600 TEU per week.
The Poland Xpress is part of both Lineas’ European Green Xpress Network and PCCI’s Regular Rail Network connecting the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Belgium. Goods coming from the East via Poland can connect in Antwerp to over 20 key destinations in Europe, and vice versa.
PCC Intermodal CEO – Dariusz Stefański: “We have launched regular intermodal services between Poland and Belgium just in the right moment, when the market needed a reliable solution. It was quite risky, especially since no one expected the Covid-19 pandemic and it was difficult to predict what would happen in the market. It was a big test for all of us. I am very proud that we passed it with flying colours and that our intermodal solutions work well in the market. To move even more cargo from road to rail, together with Lineas, we increase frequency of rail connections to and from Antwerp. With new sets of rail platforms prepared for this connection, we will go with a daily and regular intermodal service on the Poland-Belgium corridor."
As half of the volumes on the Poland Xpress previously moved by road, the service is a prime example of Lineas’ Modal Shift ambition. Olivier Deprez, Head of Network Management & Alliances at Lineas: “The success of our Poland Xpress shows the appetite of our customers to bring their goods even further by rail. We are pleased that through the increased frequency of our service with PCC Intermodal, we allow companies to connect their goods from all over Poland to Europe, thereby optimising their supply chain even more.”
(Source: Lineas)
