As part of its efforts to deliver more resilient and sustainable transportation services across Europe, DP World now offers rail and barge services at nearly all of its European terminals. The worldwide end-to-end logistics and smart trade enabler has pledged to invest in multimodal transportation across the region in order to improve customer service while also reducing the amount of carbon-emitting trucks on Europe’s increasingly congested roadways. DP World has 20 terminals spread across 12 European nations. The corporation has reaped considerable benefits from its recent rail infrastructure investments in Turkey and the United Kingdom, while its improved services in Rotterdam and Antwerp remain critical to the massive volumes of goods going in and out of the vital Hinterland region.
While the need for resilient and efficient services are driving much of the firm’s investment, it also believes rail and barge are key to reducing carbon emissions within the sector. A recent study showed that barges can move a ton of cargo 647 miles with a single gallon of fuel. Meanwhile, trains can move the same cargo 477 miles and trucks only manage 145 miles per gallon.
DP World Antwerp, one of the greenest multipurpose terminals in the world, boasts unrivalled railhead services within the terminal, handling up to 40 trains each week, with flexible, direct connections to every major European industrial region. In fact, the rail hub at Antwerp Gateway can handle six trains simultaneously, benefiting from six rail tracks of 750m in length – and therefore capable of handling any type of block train. The port is also connected to the 1,500km-long Belgian waterway network and to the pan-European river and canal network, resulting in a substantial 35% of all cargo to/from Antwerp Gateway being transported by barge.
