Since the beginning of April, LTE Netherlands is operating container trains (Contargo) of more than 700m length from Mannheim to Rotterdam and back (via Venlo in February and March, via Mannheim and Emmerich in April).
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This fact is remarkable, as crossing borders is only permitted for trains up to 690m in length. The train of April 4th was therefore stopped.
After intervention of LTE Netherlands, it was possible to get an (exceptional) approval from DB Netze and ProRailTraffic. As a result, shunting on the Maasvlakte became no longer necessary, the transport was accelerated by 1,5 hours and the costs for the customer were reduced accordingly.
LTE-group has proven to safely run extra long trains and our experience has shown, that train lengths of up to 735m are also practical. We agree with the opinion of Hans-Willem Vroon that it is necessary to update these cross-border restrictions for unbureaucratic extra long transports in the future.
As Ray van Ginneke (LTE NL) put it: "With a little flexibility and the right people in the driver's seat, limits can be extended."
You can find the whole article in the attachment or on LinkedIn.