Karlshamn is set to acquire a rail shuttle that will link the industrial base of southeast Sweden with the Port of Gothenburg and the world. The shuttle will be operated in collaboration with SCT Transport, one of Sweden’s largest container transport providers.
“Each week around 30 containers will be loaded onto rail trucks instead of road trucks,” said Svante Altås, SCT Transport chief executive. “This represents a significant environmental gain as we can eliminate 30 journeys by truck, equivalent to a driving distance of 10,200 km per week. There is a great deal of interest among companies in southeast Sweden in transporting goods by rail to the Port of Gothenburg.”
SCT Transport will operate the Gothenburg-Karlshamn service once a week in both directions during the summer. The plan is to add further weekly departures during the autumn.
The core volumes are sheet metal parts from the Volvo plant in Olofström destined for China although it is hoped that other types of freight that are currently being transported by road to and from southeast Sweden can be switched to rail.
At present rail transport accounts for half the container traffic to and from the Port of Gothenburg container terminal.
