BRITTANY Ferries has officially launched a new piggyback rail service transporting semi-trailers 970km from the port of Cherbourg to Bayonne near the Spanish border. The trains could remove 25,000 lorry movements a year from French roads.
The new service was inaugurated in Cherbourg on July 17 by French transport minister, Philippe Tabarot, Jean-Marc Roué, president of Brittany Ferries, and Niall Burgess, the Irish ambassador to France.
Brittany Ferries has created a new subsidiary BAI Rail which manages and markets the piggyback service, operated with a fleet of 47 twin-unit swing-tray wagons built by Lohr and purchased by Brittany Ferries for €14m. French National Railways (SNCF) subsidiary Captrain France has been awarded a contract to haul the trains, the value of which has not been disclosed.
The first test runs started last spring and a regular service operating three times a week, using one train, followed in mid-May. Earlier this month a second train was added, enabling a fourth service to operate in each direction every week, and this will rise to six train pairs a week by December. Each 18-wagon train can carry up to 36 semi-trailers.
Under the first phase of operation, the train is diesel-hauled throughout, and diverts via Niort between Poitiers and Bordeaux due to loading gauge restrictions in tunnels on the Paris - Bordeaux main line. Gauge enhancement will be completed in 2027, enabling electric traction to be used between Tours and Bayonne, but the majority of the route between Caen and Tours is not electrified.
Trains are timetabled to connect with Brittany Ferries services from Cherbourg to Rosslare in Ireland. The principal customer is Austrian road haulage company LKW Walter, providing over 50% of traffic.
The new service has involved investment of over €80m in total, including the new wagon fleet and construction of a €11.2m new terminal at the port of Cherbourg for 750m-long trains that can load or unload 12 semi-trailers at the same time. Reconnecting the port to the national network cost a further €3.9m.
The French government is providing an additional €19m for a dedicated terminal at Mouguerre near Bayonne, due for completion in 2027. At present the train needs to be split at Mouguerre for unloading. SNCF Network has carried out gauge enhancement between Caen and Tours costing €3m and is investing €30m to enlarge four tunnels between Poitiers and Bordeaux.
According to Frédéric Pouget, director of ports and operations at Brittany Ferries, the company has experienced a surge in unaccompanied semi-trailer traffic, where the trailer moves by ferry without a tractor unit and driver. Since Brexit, Brittany Ferries has seen traffic on the Cherbourg - Rosslare route rise from 20,000 to over 90,000 lorries a year.
“We are responding to this demand, extending services across the spine of western France,” he says. “What we have to offer is the greenest and most efficient way to transport goods.”
