Spain is on the brink of intermodal freight rail boost. By now, most cargo moved by rail was transported in containers, so called “Tecos”. The new hype term is “autopistas ferroviarias”, i.e. railway highways. The idea is to transfer large amounts on semitrailers that arrive in Spanish ports from abroad by RoRo ships and instead of letting them on the roads, transfer them to rail for maximum possible distance before the last-mile road delivery. The concentration of trucks on ships gives an excellent opportunity, from traffic from Morocco and northern Africa via the Algeciras port, or traffic from Italy via the Valencia port.
In the latter case, Tramesa, the logistics division of the Armando Alvarez Group active in chemicals production, is very active. Its plan is to start a new railway highway service connecting the port of Valencia with Madrid soon four times per week. It has recently installed new crane in Valencia, and the latest news came from Slovak wagons manufacturer Tatravagónka, where Tramesa accepted its first out of 55 new T4000 pocket wagons.
Each Tramesa train should consist of 20 wagons, i.e. move 40 semi-trailers at a time. Medway will provide traction for this service. In addition to 35 own wagons, Tramesa will lease 20 wagons for this purpose from Wascosa.
In 2025, Tramesa plans to increase this service offering through connecting Valencia all the way to Portugal.
