A terminal of its own in Ostrava
Railfreight transport requires not only intelligent equipment, but also the right transhipment facility in the right place. The Austrian rail logistics company Innofreight, which is building an intermodal terminal near the third-largest Czech city, is doing its best to provide both – with the financial support of Concens Investment.
It happened in mid-September. The Austrian rail logistics company Innofreight, headquartered in the town of Bruck an der Mur, broke ground for the construction of an intermodal transport terminal in the Czech city of Ostrava – with a collection of regional political VIPs present.
The initial phase of the ‘Ostrava Airport Multimodal Park’, to give the new facility its full name, is being built and financed by the Czech developer Concens Investments. After its completion, Innofreight will buy the terminal.
Focusing on the railways
Both completion and purchase of the terminal are scheduled for 2022, as Petr Michal, the chief executive officer of IF-Invest, told the ITJ. After that, many thousands of tonnes of goods a year will no longer be hauled on the roads, but be transported by rail – which goes far easier on the environment.
Michal added that “this terminal will enable us to further expand our services as well as our maintenance capacities, and simultaneously also provide better solutions for our customers and partners in Central and Eastern Europe.”
The regional economy in and around Ostrava will thus also receive opportunities to develop even more dynamically, according to governor Ivo Vondrák and Ostrava mayor Tomáš Macura, as they both emphasised at the ground-breaking ceremony. Innofreight has been present with numerous projects in Czechia ever since its foundation in 2002.
The future Innofreight terminal will be open to all companies, that is to say shippers and entities from the logistics industry. It will have six tracks, with lengths of up to 724 m. Up to 1,600 teu can be handled daily on the 98,000 m² site. The terminal will also offer last-mile services. A separate Innofreight service centre for the firm’s own special equipment is also being built.
The first idea for the construction of a terminal originated twelve years ago; it was recently taken up again by Concens. Thanks to regional political support, the project has now been tackled.
Another start-up – in Slovenia
Innofreight also expanded in Slovenia in mid-September, taking its five-year cooperation agreement with the wagon manufacturer Duler to new levels by founding the company Innoduler, a modern centre for the production of containers and pallets.
In the presence of Slovenian labour minister Janez Cigler Kralj, Innofreight spokesperson Theresa Niederl told the ITJ at the opening of the new manufacturing facility that “the centre is equipped with technical tools of the highest standard. Welding robots can process individual components, as well as entire containers at once, in the factory.”
Innoduler to make Innofreight units
Innoduler will produce Innofreight containers, such as the ‘RockTainer’, the ‘SurfaceWaterTank’, the ‘AcidTainer’ and the ‘MonTainer’, as well as pallets for commercial use throughout Europe. There are 15,000 special containers and 2,000 wagons in Innofreight’s fleet. It transports tens of thousands of tonnes of goods by rail every year.
