Agreement signed by EIB and Medway for expansion of rail cargo services

Credit: Medway

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €45 million agreement with Medway ROSCO, a subsidiary of Medway Operador Ferroviário de Mercadorias (Medway OFM), the Iberian Peninsula’s largest private rail freight operator and part of the Medlog Group. The project supports the expansion of rail freight transport services in Portugal and Spain (including cross-border services), thus enabling more efficient supply chains in the two countries.

“The EIB is strongly committed to supporting sustainable transport and fostering cohesion, promoting competition across Europe, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, Vice-President of EIB, said. “The new locomotives and intermodal wagons will improve interconnectivity within Spain and Portugal while reducing traffic, pollution and transport costs.”

The new services offered by Medway OFM will predominantly target less developed or transition regions in Spain and Portugal, thus contributing to strengthening the European Union’s economic, social and territorial cohesion objectives and promoting sustainable transport. The project will also positively affect employment, as it is expected to create around 940 jobs during the implementation phase (2022-2023) and 56 new jobs during operation.

The EIB financing will enable Medway OFM to expand its fleet through Medway ROSCO’s acquisition of 16 electric locomotives and 113 intermodal wagons, contributing to the expansion of rail freight transport services and enabling a modal shift from road to rail. Moreover, the project supports the development of electric rail transport, a zero direct emissions transport technology, and will facilitate cross-border traffic as well as inter-modality (movement of containers by successive modes of transportation), thus improving the effectiveness of freight transport chains. The new locomotives will provide additional capacity of around 1.5 billion tonne-km (equivalent to approximately 54 per cent of the overall rail freight market in Portugal) for new services that could include the transport of lithium, wood, chemicals and other products as well as new regular container lines from the port of Sines to various destinations across the Iberian Peninsula.

“This agreement reflects Medway’s commitment to improving its activity and efficiency, in order to meet not only the challenging expansion programme in which we are involved, but also the demands of decarbonisation and sustainable economy, as well as the needs of our customers and the entire logistics industry,” Carlos Vasconcelos, President of Medway, said. “We thank the European Investment Bank for the vote of confidence in Medway and for allowing us to take another step in our growth and sustainability strategy.”