Yesterday I opened a new intermodal transport hub in the west of Bucharest, a new 6.4 million euro British investment in Romania run by the company Tibbett Logistics.
This state-of-the-art terminal will allow freight trains to be off-loaded right in the centre of “Europolis”, the main industrial park in Bucharest. It’s an important development for lots of reasons.
Firstly, it will make the transport of goods from Constanta to customers in Bucharest much quicker and cheaper. Tibbett Logistics are taking advantage of the recent upgrades in the railway and will be leasing their own trains to deliver containers from the port to their new terminal.
Because these trains will travel almost to the door of the big customers based in Bucharest, the costs of supply through Constanta will be much more competitive. So will the costs of rail freight to Bucharest from other EU countries west of Romania.
Secondly, it means that there will be many fewer trucks on the ring road around Bucharest. Until now, most freight trains from Constanta had to be unloaded at a terminal on the east side of town and put on trucks to deliver to the warehouses of retailers and other companies that are concentrated in western Bucharest. That short journey costs a lot, both financially and in terms of the impact on the roads and road uses.
And there’s an environmental cost too. Making rail the most efficient way to transport freight will make big savings in CO2. In fact, just as a result of this new British investment, analysts predict a reduction of 16.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
When I arrived in Romania in 2010 one of my first trips was to Constanta, which is one of the largest ports in Europe. I found it extraordinary that many companies in Romania preferred to be supplied from Rotterdam, two thousands kilometres away by truck. One year later, that is changing. The upgrade to the railway line, and the new intermodal terminal in Bucharest, make Constanta an increasingly attractive option.