France - 'A pan-European rail freight service is essential'

We are certain to obtain grants from regions, states and Europe - Yanick Paternotte

It is slow going at the moment, but the major players working on developing the Roissy Cargo Rail Express (Carex) insist the link to CDG will be up and running by 2012.

Although carriers and logistics companies say the trucking facilities in Paris are excellent, they also add that a high-speed rail link connecting Europe would be even better. Cargo will be able to travel from CDG in less than 3 1/2 hours, using TGV technology, to Lyon, Aix-Marseille, PoitiersBordeaux, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, London, Cologne and Amsterdam.

"As there is a common wish coming from political and public institutions and private companies, the cargo train service in Europe is going to happen, " confirms Yanick Paternotte, chairman and president of Carex.

"All the partners involved are convinced that the realisation of the project is essential for environmental and economic reasons.

"The objective of Carex is to create a European high-speed rail service, Eurocarex, connected to CDG airport.

"Last year we launched an economic and technical feasibility study. The conclusions are very satisfying, and the cost of transport for the operators and the feasibility is now clearly proved.

"We have the support of the European Commission and of the French president." The project will be developed in three stages, with the CDG, Lyon, London, Amsterdam Schiphol, Cologne-Bonn and Lille Lesquin operational by the spring of 2012.

The second phase will take between five and seven years more, and will include AixMarseille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Frankfurt, with the final stage linking Spain, Italy and more of Germany some eight years after that.

Paternotte denies there have been problems with the project so far.

"It has not been delayed," he says. "The final report shows it will take time to build the rail links and the terminals on each of the sites. And the manufacturers will need four or five years to develop and construct the rolling stock." The developers also need time to pull together financing of €925m, which will include €625m for 20 trains. The terminals at CDG will cost some €22m.

"We are certain to obtain grants from regions, states and Europe, " says Paternotte.

"But it is a little early to give you the details of all the investments. For example, we need to know whether the freight operators or airport authoriteis will need to invest." The plan is for each operator using the service to make an annual booking to a centralised authority pay in advance at the start of each year.

Although the project will inevitably take cargo away from some short and medium- haul flights, the airline industry appears to welcome Carex.

"The service will offer freight operators the opportunity to develop their activiteis in spite of environmental constraints such as decreasing slot resources or night bans at airports, and traffic limitations on the roads, " says Paternotte.

FedEx, the second largest freight shipper at CDG, is one of the key partners in the project.

"Carex is a major asset for companies, and is an opportunity to make France an attractive place for its foreign partners, " FedEx says. "Roissy CDG, with its multimodality, would become Europe’s warehouse." Aéroports de Paris (ADP) is also fully behind the project. "The challenge for ADP is to ensure the growth of its business while taking into account the regulatory restrictions concerning night take-off and landing slots, " says Gérard Lefèvre, deputy director of Charles de Gaulle airport at ADP.

"This project forms part of the company’s sustainable growth strategy." Both Air France-KLM Cargo and BA World Cargo also back the project. "Hundreds of trucks operate all year long to and from our CDG hub - especially when you consider that all the pre- and post-forwarding of our longhaul freight is done within Europe in palletised trucks, " says Roger Avril, director, France for AF-KLM Cargo.

"The new project should, theoretically, be a big success, especially for the urgent cargo segment."