Freight services • Intermodal transport • CargoBeamer

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In brief

CargoBeamer terminals incorporate advanced handling infrastructure, including guided vehicle positioning systems and automated locking mechanisms, which streamline operations and reduce manual intervention.

Additionally, the design of the loading pallets and wagons maintains consistent weight distribution and structural integrity of the trailers during rail transit. This allows standard trailers to be transported without modification, simplifying logistics chains and enabling interoperability with existing road transport networks. The system supports high-frequency operations and rapid turnaround, making it suitable for long-distance and cross-border freight corridors. In essence, CargoBeamer provides a technically efficient bridge between road and rail transport, emphasizing automation, modularity, and system integration within conventional rail infrastructure.

Background

Since the inception of intermodal rail transport, research over recent decades has pursued two main objectives: on the one hand, to eliminate the need for costly cranes at terminals; and on the other, to accommodate all semi-trailers whose height dimensions have evolved over time. Approximately 80% of semi-trailers in Europe are non-liftable and were therefore likely never to be loaded onto a train. It was therefore necessary to develop horizontal loading techniques, some of which present numerous technical challenges.

After the German Rollende Landstraße and the French Modalohr concept, a third approach enabling the loading of semi-trailers without cranes once again came from Germany, this time in a more sophisticated form.

However, the technological concept here was accompanied by two additional requirements:

• to load and unload semi-trailers very quickly without the use of cranes or reach stackers;
• to allow trains to follow one another in rapid succession.

This design was conceived as early as 1998 by Hans-Jürgen Weidemann, Michael Baier, and Fritz Merk. It became a reality in 2003 with the establishment of CargoBeamer AG. After years of intensive development, CargoBeamer launched its first operational trains in 2015 and its first technological terminal in 2021 at Calais.

What exactly is CargoBeamer technology?

The technical requirement was to unload semi-trailers on one side of the train and simultaneously load others on the opposite side. This solution required a complete redesign of the terminal (photo beside).

Until then, lateral transfer of intermodal transport units (ITUs) had been scarcely studied, except for the Austrian Mobiler system, which was only suitable for swap bodies. A key challenge was the design of the wagon pocket, which is inherently fixed. CargoBeamer overcame this limitation by developing a shuttle system that can move the container tray from one side of the wagon to the other.

The solution implemented was a particularly sophisticated wagon design, whose two long side panels fold down to the ground, thereby freeing a tray containing the semi-trailer. The photo below shows the lowering of the long side panel, which releases the tray carrying the semi-trailer (called a CargoModule). This highlights the complexity of the wagon, which has been one of the main criticisms of this highly technological system.

Once the long side panels are lowered, the CargoModule is moved by two jacks embedded in the terminal floor, which lift the tray from underneath to transfer it out of the wagon (shown in red in the photo below).

How do operations take place at the terminal?

The terminal is particularly sophisticated for its technological level. It should be noted that CargoBeamer allows its trains to operate:

• either at a dedicated terminal using its transverse loading technology;
• or at any terminal thanks to the CargoModules, which can be handled by clamps, as we will see below.

CargoBeamer has aimed to automate the process as much as possible. Entry is digital, using a code sent to the driver. The driver parks their trailer and either picks up another one or leaves empty. The whole procedure takes around 10–15 minutes.

A yard tractor then collects the deposited trailer and places it onto one of the available CargoModules, securing it in place. The CargoModule can already begin to shift onto its wagon while the tractor carries out the same operation for other semi-trailers.

Once all the CargoModules are loaded and moved, the long sides of the wagons fold, and the train is ready to depart, as shown in the video below.

But what is the advantage of this system?
According to CargoBeamer, a full 500-metre train can be unloaded and reloaded in a single operation. The long sides of the wagons fold all at once for the entire train. Likewise, all the CargoModules are removed simultaneously while other CargoModules are placed onto the wagons, again all at the same time. The long sides then fold back simultaneously, and the train is ready. The whole process is said to take around twenty minutes—roughly the same figure cited by competitor Lohr. There is, however, quite a battle over claims in this area.

This speed, including the procedures for moving the train in and out of the terminal, could theoretically allow for one train per hour—24 trains per day—something no conventional terminal with vertical handling can achieve. The CargoBeamer concept is therefore not focused on accompanied transport, like the German RoLa or Lohr’s AFA system.

By having more CargoModules than wagons in circulation, a CargoBeamer terminal can already prepare its trains in advance, so that semi-trailers are ready to be loaded as soon as a train arrives.

The cargo Module

Neither the special wagons nor the automated transverse unloading terminals would be viable without the renowned removable platforms. These platforms differ fundamentally from the French Lohr and Swedish Megaswing systems. In the latter two, the platform pivots but remains attached to its wagon. This is not the case with CargoBeamer, where the platform is completely removed from its wagon and is therefore interchangeable between wagons, trains, and terminals.

As with the somewhat similar NiKRASA system, this “free-floating” capability will in the future require separate management and numbering to track which platforms are in use and how many are held in reserve at terminals. This allows for more platforms than wagons and enables pre-preparation of loads. However, in 2023, this platform management issue had not yet become a priority.

CargoBeamer had the ingenious idea of not restricting itself to its own technology and designed a Cargo Module that, while specific, can also be handled by crane at terminals without the transverse system.

This Cargo Module thus presents itself—in contrast to NiKRASA—as a robust and somewhat heavier tray, which actually enhances the wagon’s rigidity. It features four standardised attachment points for traditional clamp handling. It is therefore a crucial component of the CargoBeamer concept, as it can be used at any terminal, sophisticated or not.

In theory, a semi-trailer could be loaded directly by the truck driver, as shown in the photo on the left. In practice, however, the driver simply drops the trailer at a dedicated parking area and can immediately leave, either empty or with another trailer. CargoBeamer then uses its own yard tractor to place the trailers onto the Cargo Modules, ensuring safe loading and managing operations as it sees fit.

Trial and first route

Finding a suitable site to establish a technological terminal was no easy task. Curiously, it was not in Germany but in Calais, France, that CargoBeamer had its first opportunity to install its own terminal.

However, full-scale testing had to be carried out first. As mentioned earlier, the concept also includes fully automated, innovative terminals, which are intended to unload and load an entire train in 20 minutes without a crane. Up to that point, aside from the demonstration terminal in Leipzig, there had been only one successful pilot test in 2013 with a compact terminal on the grounds of Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, using a three-module setup. CargoBeamer invested nearly €2.5 million in this first project.

2015 – Kaldenkirchen–Domodossola
Following these initial trials, further tests were conducted on the Kaldenkirchen–Domodossola route, but this time using the actual wagons, which had not yet been certified. This route passed via the Lötschberg line on the BLS network in Switzerland and only went as far as the border station at Domodossola. It appears there were no plans to certify these very specialised wagons further into Italy. Between 2015 and 2020 alone, the service moved more than 64 000 trailers.

2020 – CargoBeamer orders 216 wagons from On Rail

On 24 June 2020, CargoBeamer concluded a contract with On Rail GmbH, Mettmann, for the production of 216 CargoBeamer wagons with the option of expanding the order to 432 wagons. The long-standing development partner Deutsche Waggon Union is accompanying the production process.

With delivery of the wagons starting in spring 2021, CargoBeamer has expexted the transport offer to up to 72 weekly block trains in combined transport for semi-trailers of all types on several trans-European routes. This growth of CargoBeamer was being financed by an already implemented private capital increase and the consortium consisting of UniCredit Leasing and BayernLB.

2022 – Start of In-House Wagon Production
CargoBeamer opened its own wagon production facility in Erfurt, Germany, aiming to assemble its proprietary railcars itself and produce hundreds per year. This represents a shift in how wagons are made and gives CargoBeamer more control over design and production.

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