Companies in the French surroundings of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Lyon should benefit from shorter transit times of ocean cargo thanks to the new offering of Maersk. From November 2023, three weekly block trains pulled by Captrain and Naviland Cargo will connect the Port of Barcelona with Toulouse, and one weekly block train between Barcelona and Lyon. The Toulouse connection extends to Bordeaux via a partner network. On the other side of the route, Barcelona can be extended by rail connections to Tarragona and Zaragoza. These trains can also be used for intra-continental cargo between Spain and France.
Compared to existing routing via northern European or French ports, average transit time will be shorter by 7 days on average but can save up to 12 days. Thanks to the usage of Stadler Euro6000 locomotives and the standard-gauge railway connection to Barcelona, these block trains will have a seamless cross-border operation that will enable the transit time advantage.
