The most modern inter-modal hub in the Benelux was inaugurated on July 7th 2017
This hot July week-end over 12.000 people are expected to visit the new Luxembourg inter-modal hub that was built over the last 5 years on the former centrally located European US forces hub managed by NAMSA. This amazing opportunity to modify over 100 hectares in the industrial south of Luxembourg to meet the needs of a modern logistics hub in Western-Europe at the cross-road of France, Belgium and Germany, was taken very serious by the Luxembourg government. Over 220 Million Euro were invested leading to the most modern hub able to transfer 300.000 containers and 300.000 semi-trailers to the rail, latter using the Lohr technology.
This will help to meet the new goal to decrease the CO2 emissions as 1 semi-trailer for example, can be transported 1050 km in 14h from Bettembourg to Boulou on the Spanish border, producing 256 kg instead of 1843 kg CO2. This average 70% reduction provides a response to the Paris COP21 challenge that requires sustainable logistics as driven by labels like Lean and Green (www.c4l.lu/lean-and-green) or French "Objectif CO2".
Many connections are being developed by the international community between Luxembourg-Bettembourg and Antwerp, Calais, Istanbul, Lodz, Lyon, Poznan, Trieste, and last not least Zeebrugge.
This makes the new Eurohub South Logistics park situated on both the Bettembourg and Dudelange communes, very interesting due to close distance less than 30 minutes away from Belgium, France or Germany.
The short distance from and to the Luxembourg airport, No 6 in Europe for airfreight and the ongoing increase in e-commerce will encourage short-term to be supplied by the "silk road of the air" as the Chinese Prime-Minister called the frequent connection of Luxembourg with Zhengzhou and mid-term it is expected that a regular train connecting Bettembourg with China is only a matter of commitment by shippers with benefits to obtain or place products more than 20 days faster, than through the maritime link of the Chinese Belt and Road strategy.
Some players and members of the Cluster for Logistics like ArthurWelter, CFL multimodal, Transalliance or GN Transport have already recently decided to invest in Bettembourg or Dudelange to provide value-adding services to their international and national customers.
Full trains, block trains as well as single wagon load will be available with international partners, as well as oversize load capacity. Today already more than 45 combined train departures the new capacity of nominal 28 trains per day, parking lots for 840 trainers and storage capcity for 3,425 TEU is ready for beyond 2030 combined freight levels to establish Luxembourg as major European logistics hub.
Beside warehousing and distribution, the offer will include One-stop-shops in e-commerce and logistics services as well as freight forwarding and any innovative logistics solutions conceivable. It took Bremen, the largest German Freight village (GVZ) situated on 472 ha that are 50% used and ranks second in the European freight village ranking 2015, about 30 years to develop their multi-purpose logistics park. It employs 8.000 people today although is still lacks the direct highway access, promised around 1990.
We take a bet that after the inauguration Containerland at the crossroad of highways to France Germany and Belgium will see faster development in Bettembourg and Dudelange
It is good to know that there are plans in implementation phase and budgets available and earmarked to drive the infrastructure around the Hub with highspeed. This will support the transport and Logistics sector and could easily drive employment in the sector to 5% and establish Luxembourg firmly as recognized major European logistics hub and maintain its good position in the Worldbank Logistics Performance Index LPI 2016, where Luxembourg currently holds the No 2 rank behind Germany.
