An overnight failure

The reluctance of shippers to commit to rail freight has been blamed for the failure of Railion’s Overnight Express service from Amsterdam to Milan, which stopped operating last week.
Railion claims that after 18 months providing a reliable service, shippers still refused to back the passenger/freight pilot pr ject, initially heralded as the first in a network oIhigh-specd freight connections.
Railion spokesman Rene Holdert said: “We did a lot of market research. People kept saying it was a brilliant idea and they wanted t.o buy the product but the next week they would use their trucks and say they had no cargo for the train.”
The 14-hour six-weekly Overnight Express was targeted at flower and fresh produce shippers based in Amsterdam, represented by the Efforrt umbrella organisation. “We had a lot of support from Efforrt in words, but not in deeds,” said Holdert. “After one and a half years, we had to be
more businesslike and get some contracts, but only Jan de Rijk would commit.
Air freight trucking specialist Jan de Rijk agreed to ship 96 units every week — 60% of capacity — but Railion still struggled to make the economics work. “We needed of capacity full each night. We got that sometimes, but not often enough,” said Holdert.
Kees de Jongh, manager of .Jan de Rijk’s freight management services division said the service worked “almost perfectly” for products requiring fast transit, which are usually
shipped by road using two drivers. “We would have liked Railion to have continued the service and it was disappointing that other carriers wouldn’t make a long-term commitment,” he said. “Railion could have been more entrepreneurial because they already had 60% of capacity guaranteed, plus their own cargo, which is a brilliant start.
“But I can understand why they haven’t. There have been more discussions, talks and promises than cargo, and they had clear ideas on the commitments they needed.”
Rutges Cargo, which used the Overnight Express to ship flowers to Italy, said despite the advantages the service offered, the company was unable to provide the steady flow of traffic Railion needed because of cargo flow fluctuations,
Commercial manager Jason Breakwell said: “We had a lot of difficulty convincing shippers to give it a go, but once they did and realised they could save 24 hours without being shunted into a siding because it was a passenger train too, they responded, he said. But because of the nature of the air cargo business, there was often not enough demand early in the week so we couldn’t be involved on a regular enough basis for Rail ion.”
Jan de Rijk is in talks with other rail operat rs to get a new service up and running. “We are looking at all options at the moment. There is no other product with such fast transit times available and the potential is there to connect airports in northern Europe with the south,” said de .Jongh.