BELGIAN infrastructure manager Infrabel has reopened the Mercator freight yard at Ghent sea port after sidings were adapted to accommodate 740m-long freight trains.
Mercator yard is the second busiest at the port after Gent Zeehaven yard. It serves nearby industries including a large Volvo car plant, DFDS Ferries and Arcelor Mittal. The Volvo plant is served by Lineas, which operates up to two trains a day bringing car parts from Ålmhult, Sweden.
The remodelling of Mercator yard, which opened in 1996, involved extending six sidings to a length of 750m each, at a cost of €12.5m, of which €4m was funded by the federal government and the remainder from the European Union (EU) Recovery and Resilience Facility Fund.
The yard has seen a steady increase in traffic, reaching over 4000 train movements in 2022, when the decision was taken to reconfigure the yard and increase capacity. The yard retains three additional sidings of between 500m and 600m in length.
The Mercator yard was officially reopened by Matthias Diependael, president of the Flanders region, in the presence of Benoît Gilson, CEO of Infrabel, and Erik Ockenburg, CEO of Lineas.
Infrabel will soon start a further phase of works at the yard, that will enhance capacity and safety, including the installation of signals and remote point operation. This is scheduled for completion in 2029 and is part of a strategy to increase rail’s modal share at the port from 10 to 15%.
“This infrastructure is essential and provides more capacity at Ghent, which is an engine of the Belgian economy,” Gilson says. “This investment will contribute to modal shift and is also positive for the environment.”
