Port of Zeebrugge has seen new rail services with Terminal Container Athus (TCA) and the Swiss-based rail operator Hupac Intermodal commencing new intermodal products in the Belgian port.

Firstly, TCA is restarting a weekly container train between Zeebrugge and Athus aiming to serve only maritime cargo. Additionally, Cosco Shipping Ports (CSP) and TCA will transport containers from two calls of the Ocean Alliance, which includes COSCO, OOCL, CMA CGM and Evergreen Line.

The terminals will initially offer one roundtrip each week with the possibility to add a second rotation if volumes are increased.

The Terminal Container Athus, founded in 1989, is located right next to France and Luxembourg and specialises in the combination of rail and road transport of maritime containers. The terminal forms a hinge between Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam on the one hand and the Saarland-Lorraine-Luxembourg region on the other.

Furthermore, Hupac has initiated a connection between the port of Zeebrugge and both Brescia, Italy and Barcelona, Spain in June.

Since September, the rail operator will also offer a rail link between Zeebrugge and the Polish Warsaw/Gadki. Hupac already has regular connections from Zeebrugge to the northern Italian destinations Novara and Busto from the terminals of CLdN/CRO and P&O.

The connections with Barcelona and Warsaw go via Antwerp, while the connection to Brescia goes directly from Zeebrugge.

With the new connections, Hupac aims at traffic from the United Kingdom and from the other shortsea services that call at Zeebrugge.