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The three Swiss logistics and freight companies Contargo AG, Hupac SA and SBB Cargo AG established a joint planning company – Gateway Basel Nord – this week. It will push ahead with planning the new Basel Nord container terminal.

The advanced status of the project work for the Basel Nord container terminal makes it possible to submit a funding application soon for the financing of the first bi-modal expansion phase to the Federal Office of Transport (FOT). Gateway Basel Nord, the joint company set up in the past few days by the three companies Contargo, Hupac und SBB Cargo, will operate the bi-modal (road/rail) terminal once it has been completed. The new logistics hub will be open to all interested users – without discrimination – for the transhipment of containers and other load carriers used in intermodal transport.

The three companies are planning to submit the funding application in the next few months. This calls for extensive planning documents which are currently being drawn up. Thanks to its central location between the railway and the motorway, the terminal will have excellent transport links. Operations are due to commence in 2019.

In a second phase, the facility is to be extended the addition of a new dock basin of Swiss Rhine Ports for trimodal transhipment (road/rail/water) and will be connected directly to the Kleinhüningen Rhine port. The future dock basin 3 will enable the efficient integration of domestic shipping. Further partners may join once the facility goes tri-modal.

"Efficient transhipment to bundle transport modes is key for Switzerland. The Swiss Rhine ports are therefore of paramount strategic importance to ensure supplies to Switzerland", explains Holger Bochow, Managing Director of Contargo.

"Basel Nord is strategically situated on the Rotterdam-Genoa corridor and, with its 750 metres of rail tracks, is suitably equipped for competitive operations. With this hub we are integrating our domestic network to the north and south and creating new market opportunities for a modal shift", , explains Bernhard Kunz, CEO of Hupac.

"Switzerland urgently needs a large-scale terminal in order to handle growing container volumes efficiently and in an environmentally friendly manner. The establishment of the joint planning company is an important step in this direction", explains Nicolas Perrin, CEO of SBB Cargo.