Spanish carmaker Seat, which saw its rail provider Autometro deliver 63,305 vehicles from the Martorell plant to the nearby Port of Barcelona last year, is now planning to extend the link to the Moll Costa wharf, currently being enlarged to accommodate a short-sea shipping terminal.
Autometro is a joint-venture company comprising the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) local rail company, COMSA Rail Transport and Pecovasa. It uses a 38 double-decker carriage convoy able to carry 171 vehicles to the port on an average of two shipments a day along the Llobregat-Anoia line between Igualada and Barcelona.
Since it began the service (around this time last year) it has taken around 20,000 trucks off the Catalan roads.
The service was established with a collaborative investment of €6.8m between the Catalan government, the Port of Barcelona, and Seat, which saw the addition of a branch line leading to the Seat factory, coupled with new track providing access to the unloading area of the port.
The plan is to now extend this service and ship some 20,000 vehicles a year to the Moll Costa wharf for onward shipment to Italy.
The Port of Barcelona aims to have 30 per cent of incoming and outgoing cargo transported by rail once the Rail and Road Access Plan to the port, promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works, has been implemented.
In other news at the Martorell plant, DHL Exel Supply Chain will terminate its logistics contract with Seat there from the end of March. The announcement comes after the companies failed to sign a contract based on reduced expenditure in the light of production downturns affecting production in the country.
