UTK, the Polish Office of Rail Transport, published a report summarising the year 2022 in intermodal transportation in Poland. In total, 26.2 million tons of intermodal cargo was transported by rail. Compared to 2021, the weight of transported goods decreased by 1.4%, and freight turnover increased by 5.3%. The main reason for this decrease was the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Following this step, many companies halted their New Silk Road containerised shipments from Asia to Europe via Russia, impacting the main artery on this route – the entry point to the EU in the Polish border station of Małaszewicze.
The cargo weight in intermodal transport decreased yearly by over 0.3 million tons (-1.4%). Compared to 2021, the number of transported units decreased by 28,000. (1.6%). This accounted for 2,836,000 TEUs, a decrease of 84,000.
In 2022, Poland's share of the intermodal rail segment was 10.5%, 0.4 percentage points less than in 2021.
On the north-south axis, Polish Baltic ports handled 3.1 mil. TEUs in 2022, a slight decrease of 0.1 mil. TEUs when compared to the record year of 2021. Almost all containers originated from ports in Gdansk and Gdynia. The most container traffic from these ports headed to Warsaw, Łódź and terminals located in the Łódź Voivodeship, to the provinces of Greater Poland and Lower Silesia, and to the border with the Czech Republic to the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, as well as to Lublin and the Lublin Voivodeship.
The majority of the intermodal transport in Poland is made by 40’ containers (52.5%), followed by 20’ containers (37.7%) and 45’ containers (3.5%). Only 2.8% of intermodal units on trains were semitrailers, although they recorded a 6% year-on-year increase to a total of 49,217 units.
Among railway carriers in Poland, PKP Cargo has the biggest share (25.2%) in volume transported, with DB Cargo Polska in second (14.5%) and PCC Intermodal in third place (12.7%). They are followed by Captrain Polska (7.1%), Ecco Rail (6.3%), METRANS (Polonia) and Eurasia Railway Carrier (both 5.6%). The last in the top 10 were LTE Polska, Alza Cargo and Lotos Kolej.
