Hupac achieves one million road shipments again in 2020

In the Corona year 2020, Hupac achieved a traffic volume of one million road consignments once again. The maintenance of the network despite pandemic-related volume declines resulted in a negative business result of CHF 2.5 million on a revenue of CHF 597 million. For the current year, Hupac expects traffic growth in the single-digit percentage range and a positive business result.

(Chiasso) The further shift of heavy traffic from road to rail requires an increased focus from Switzerland on the entire North-South corridor. Only with a consistent and timely expansion of the access routes can the NEAT meet future shifting expectations.

In the past year, the Hupac Group transported 1,014,686 road consignments or 1,913,000 TEUs by rail. This represents a slight decrease of 0.9% compared to the previous year. Significant influencing factors included the collapse of maritime traffic from overseas and the economic lockdown in Europe as a direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of the year. In the second half of the year, traffic demand recovered, allowing the level of the previous year to be reached by year-end.

Hupac Maintains Traffic Volume Despite Pandemic

The effects of the Corona crisis were particularly felt in transalpine traffic through Switzerland. From April to June, demand noticeably declined; nevertheless, Hupac maintained its network, thus making an important contribution to securing the logistics of essential goods. “In spring 2020, intermodal supply chains became a stability anchor for supply,” explains Michail Stahlhut, CEO of the Hupac Group. “We responded to weekly traffic declines of -40% with network stability.” In the second half of the year, volumes returned to the previous year’s level. However, with a total transalpine volume of 538,104 road consignments (-2.3%), the gap from the crisis months could not be fully compensated.

Non-transalpine traffic closed the year 2020 with a small growth of 0.5% to 434,033 road consignments. While traffic to Eastern and Southeastern Europe developed positively, other segments such as maritime hinterland traffic from the North Sea ports were more strongly affected by Covid effects.

Network Preservation Before Capacity Optimization

The financial year 2020 was also heavily influenced by the pandemic. The annual revenue of the Hupac Group reached CHF 597 million, which is 2.3% below the previous year. The significant traffic declines and losses in the second quarter could not be compensated throughout the year, although the volume curve showed a continuous upward trend from the third quarter to year-end. However, the utilization had dropped so significantly in spring that the negative financial results during that period led to the first negative group result in the company’s history on an annual basis. Considering the difficult circumstances and fluctuations, the annual result of CHF -2.5 million turned out to be better than initially expected.

Combined Transport as an Answer to the Climate Challenge

For the coming years, Hupac expects further significant growth in combined transport. In addition to Switzerland’s active shifting policy, the European Green Deal now sets ambitious goals. By 2050, greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector are to be reduced by 90%, and rail freight transport is to be doubled. Combined transport, with its intelligent linking of various modes of transport, will play a central role in low-emission, socially compatible freight transport in the future.

Today, Hupac’s intermodal network saves 1.2 million tons of CO₂ per year compared to pure road transport. The strategy with which Hupac further improves its ecological footprint includes low-emission terminal equipment, energy-efficient buildings, and digital tools for process optimization along the value chain. Initial tests with battery-electric mobile cranes are in planning. Further opportunities for climate-neutral terminal operations are opening up with green hydrogen from renewable energy sources such as wind, water, or solar. “Combined transport can already realize the first greenhouse gas-free transport chains before 2030, and net zero will be our goal by 2050,” explains Hans-Jörg Bertschi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hupac Group.

Fulfilling the NEAT Promise – Mastering the Reduction of Funding

The NEAT was built for the transport of long, heavy, and high freight trains. Key parameters are 740 meters train length, at least 2000 tons train weight with traction from one locomotive, and 4 meters train height. While the infrastructure development in Switzerland, including the 4-meter corridor to Italy, is mostly completed, significant gaps still exist along the entire Rhine-Alpine corridor. This has direct implications for the marketability of combined transport and consequently for traffic shifting, as the planned reduction of Swiss funding must be compensated by increased productivity.

The coming year will already serve as a test for the NEAT concept. “As a milestone, our benchmark for 2022 is a standardized train length of 690 meters via Luino and 625 meters via Chiasso,” says Michail Stahlhut. “Only with the longest and heaviest trains can we absorb the upcoming significant reduction step in funding. Here, the timetable designers of the network operators are called upon to extract the maximum from the infrastructures in the current expansion phase: every meter counts.”

Change of Perspective Necessary – Focus on the Entire North-South Corridor

The opportunities for more shifting to an even more environmentally friendly combined transport have never been better. However, to meet the expected traffic volumes, sufficient capacities must be created along the entire North-South corridor, says Hans-Jörg Bertschi. “This requires corridor-wide thinking and action, initiated particularly by Switzerland, so that the NEAT meets expectations and can implement further shifts from road to rail in the second half of this decade.”

An urgent capacity increase is required in the Rhine Valley south of Mannheim. Hupac strongly supports the concept of continuous double track and electrification of the Wörth-Lauterbourg-Strasbourg route well before 2030, as this serves as a left bank capacity increase and bypass to the Mannheim-Basel route via Rastatt. The right bank four-track expansion will not be completed until after 2040 – that is too late for the shift. Equally important is the timely improvement of the power supply on the Bellinzona-Luino-Gallarate and Domodossola-Novara/Gallarate routes, so that all trains can operate with 2000 tons in the future.

There is also an urgent need for action regarding the increase in train lengths. In both Germany and the Netherlands, an upgrade of the rail infrastructures to standard train lengths of 740 meters is still pending. This represents a win-win situation for both combined operators and network operators: with more payload per train and less track demand in the network, scarce resources are optimally utilized. In the medium term, capacity must be further increased to handle the rising demand on the North-South corridor. The expansion of the axis Zeebrugge/Antwerp-Metz-Strasbourg-Basel to the standard parameters of the Rhine-Alpine corridor is expected to provide an efficient alternative for volumes from Belgium starting in 2030.

Accelerating Shifting – Further Measures

The current regulatory framework conditions are the basis for Switzerland’s success in shifting. They have enabled a market share of 70% rail in Alpine transit and made the country a pioneer in shifting policy in Europe. To continuously shift market shares from road to rail in the future, an update and supplementation of measures is required. Important focal points from Hupac’s perspective include:

• Reduction of track prices to the level of other countries in the Rhine-Alpine corridor as a climate policy measure
• Maintaining a reduced LSVA also for emission-free trucks, so that other external costs such as noise, congestion, accident risk, etc. are accurately reflected
• Incentives for the medium-term conversion of the semi-trailer fleets of the Alpine-crossing road freight transport in Switzerland to exclusively craneable equipment: Every semi-trailer should be technically capable of utilizing the option of combined transport, which has been created by the NEAT investment in the 4-meter corridor to Italy. An initiative of this kind would trigger an innovation boost from manufacturers to overcome existing inefficiencies in weight and production costs of trailers. Other countries like Germany also support the conversion of fleets to craneable semi-trailers.

In the international context, various stakeholders must overcome national thinking even more consistently and adopt a corridor perspective focused on the requirements of freight transport. The following measures would significantly improve the performance of rail freight transport and thus increase shifting opportunities:

• Ensuring freight transport capacities through international network usage planning at the corridor level
• Integrated operational management across the entire corridor, including planning of construction works in international coordination
• Priority for freight transport over long distances in case of operational disruptions and interruptions.

Outlook 2021: Network Expansion and Investment Boost

In the first four months of the year, the Hupac Group recorded a pleasing traffic growth of around 10%. This is attributed to the Corona effects from the previous year, but also to the strong demand for intermodal transport services. The focus of service development is on trailer traffic in Swiss Alpine transit, which, thanks to the 4-meter corridor opened at the end of 2020, now has a genuine alternative by rail for the first time. For this market segment, Hupac operates a Europe-wide network with 150 weekly round trips to Northern Italy and an additional 10 round trips on gateway routes to Southern Italy.

Further focal points of ongoing network development include Pordenone in northeastern Italy, Singen with new services to Munich, and Zeebrugge as a hub for traffic to the UK, Italy, Spain, and Poland. The axis Benelux-Southeast Europe, with numerous destinations in Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey, shows promising growth, which Hupac supports with frequency increases. In maritime hinterland traffic, the effects of the Suez Canal blockade are still noticeable. Nevertheless, the subsidiary ERS Railways can increase departures on certain southern German routes.

By year-end, Hupac expects traffic growth in the single-digit percentage range and a positive business result. Following the pandemic-related decline in 2020, an investment boost is planned for this year. In March, construction began at the terminal in Brwinów near Warsaw; in summer, the terminals in Piacenza and Milano Smistamento will follow. Commissioning is planned for 2023.

Photo: © Hupac