Classic terminals in combined cargo for transshipment between train and heavy goods vehicles with crane bridges or reach stackers require high levels of investment in infrastructure. A great deal of space is needed for storing the heavy goods vehicles, containers and swap bodies. The loading and unloading of a complete combined cargo train often takes several hours. One problem of combined cargo is the transshipment of conventional lorry semi-trailers on railway wagons. However, the rolling motorway transport is the best solution for traffic decongestion.
O perators who want to shift the transport of goods from road to railways have to look for the best technical solutions to permit a rapid and cheap transshipment.
One of the best solutions seems to be the CargoBeamer, a system which involves specially designed pallets which can carry trucks. The pallets are fitted to rail freight cars but can slide sideways to allow trucks to drive on & off smoothly at intermodal terminals.
Experts in the transport sector are excited about CargoBeamer, the new German transshipment technology designed to shift more truck freight to railways. The first such terminal was opened in Leipzig in Germany and trial between Leipzig and Lithuania were run in November 2010.
The new technology is significantly different from other systems currently in use. Unlike the classic rolling motorway system, CargoBeamer doesn’t involve placing entire trucks onto special flatcars and no are cranes used to reload the cargo as in the combined transport system.
Instead, the tractor pulls the trailer onto a special steel palette and deposits it there. Gripper arms installed in the ground then pull the palette, complete with the trailer, sideways onto a freight car. The side plate of the freight car is then closed and the load is ready to be moved.
The CargoBeamer is an innovative approach with great potential. In particular the fast, automated transshipment and the temporal decoupling in the transshipment by heavy goods vehicle and by rail are the strengths of the system.
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