Major investment in Karlskrona

Major investment in Karlskrona as a hub for railway freight 

Karlskrona Baltic Port, Stena Line, Logent and Green Cargo are involved in a 
joint project with Karlskrona municipality to put Verkö Harbour in Karlskrona 
on the map as the clear choice for goods transported by a combination of 
railway and ferry to and from eastern and south eastern Europe. The project 
began after the summer and is expected to be completed in the first half of 
2014.
"The aim is to make Karlskrona Baltic Port into a full-scale intermodal port 
and an even more important hub for goods that are to be transported to the
continent.The collaboration with the other actors in the project provides the 
right conditions for a successful investment in the Karlskrona terminal", says
Christer Kjellberg,Chief Project Manager and active member of Stena Line\'s 
freight management team. Karlskrona Baltic Port is jointly owned by Stena Line 
and Karlskrona Municipality,with Stena Line being the principal owner. 
The question of an intermodal service in Karlskrona has been under discussion
for some time and has been made possible following the upgrading of the
railway connection. 
"This is an important project for the region and will put Karlskrona municipality 
and Verkö Harbour on the map as one of Sweden\'s most important ports for
goods transported by a combination of railway and ferry to and from southern 
and south eastern Europe. The railway connection is of course a prerequisite,
and this has now been upgraded and modernised in the European Baltic Link
project,which also includes intermodal terminals at Alvesta and Verkö", says 
Camilla Brunsberg,who is Chair both of the municipal council and of Karlskrona
Baltic Port.Several intermodal terminals in Scandinavia have been identified as
start and end points in a number of future transport combinations,initially with
Gdynia as the southernmost hub.
"There is significant demand for intermodal solutions,so this is a very exciting 
project.This is our first intermodal terminal in Sweden so far, but we already 
have similar services between Kiel and Verona and between Poznan in Poland
and Rotterdam. Our route network of 22 routes means that the collaboration
and experience we have gained from this project will provide major 
opportunities to start similar solutions with rail links in our other markets",
says Björn Petrusson, Group Freight Director at Stena Line.
Logent has an extensive network of intermodal terminals and ports to handle
multimodal loads and the collaboration now opens the port up to Poland
and eastern Europe. 
 
"We are very happy to be able to add Karlskrona to our network of terminals. We 
will be developing our operations and offering our customers additional services 
both in the form of collection, delivery and other logistics services relating to 
incoming and outgoing loads through this terminal,just as we do at the other 
terminals in our network.We function in the transport chain as the interface 
between boat,train and truck,providing value for both infrastructure owners and 
freight owners", says Anders Madsen, MD of Logent Ports & Terminals AB. 
 
"I have roots in Blekinge, so it\'s particularly exciting to now be able to 
connect Karlskrona to our intermodal network.Opening up the opportunity to
handle driverless trailers and containers to and from south eastern Sweden 
and Poland will provide entirely new opportunities for logistics intensive 
operations to establish themselves in Karlskrona",says Michael Arvidsson, 
CEO of Logent AB. 
 
As part of the project, Green Cargo\'s trains will link Verkö Harbour\'s intermodal
volumes to the network of more than 40 terminals across Sweden. 
"We can move full trains of truck trailers,containers and swap bodies when there
are large volumes,or mixed with other goods on the train when the intermodal 
volumes are lower. In this way,the solutions become cost-effective from the 
outset and with the opportunity to grow with the assignment",says Anders Ohlsén,
sales person at Green Cargo. 
The collaboration links together a number of different towns where terminals
are located: Haparanda, Luleå, Skellefteå, Umeå, Örnsköldsvik, Sundsvall, 
Gävle, Borlänge, Stockholm, Hallsberg, Oslo, Gothenburg, Karlskrona and 
Gdynia. 
 
Stena Line, Gothenburg 
November 2013