In the Bundestag election campaign, all parties agreed: In order to reduce emissions from freight traffic, more goods should be transported by rail in the future. Combined transport is an important part of this: The truck semitrailers, which are up to 13.68 meters long, are loaded in special terminals with a crane from the truck onto the rails, onto so-called pocket wagons. The only problem is that only five percent of all semi-trailers in Germany are built for this. The remainder is “not craneable”, criticizes the European Railways Network (NEE), an amalgamation of various rail freight operators. Due to the lack of stability, these cannot be loaded by conventional cranes or mobile reach forklifts (or only with special equipment). Especially for reasons of cost and weight, the trailer manufacturers do without it, according to NEE. The association is demanding a funding program for retrofitting existing trailers from the future federal government. In addition, the EU should make it compulsory for new trailers to be craneable.
From the road to the rail – car & mobile
