Tens of tons of goods are transported every day and huge amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted in the process. In order for Europe to become climate-neutral by 2050, as the EU Commission demands, traffic must also become more climate-friendly in Main Franconia.
In addition to climate-neutral fuels, the main aim is to transport more goods by rail and less by road. What are the challenges and what do companies in the region say about this change?
Compared to the truck, the train is the more climate-friendly means of transport. But Prof. Ulrich Mller-Steinfahrt, head of the Institute for Applied Logistics at the University of Applied Sciences Wrzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS), says: “When it comes to climate-friendly freight transport, you always have to consider the entire transport chain.” Because not every sender or receiver has a train station; most goods would have to be brought to or from the goods train station by truck.
Example Knauf: Why there is no alternative to trucks
Drte Maltzahn, Head of Freight Management at Knauf Gips KG, is also familiar with this dilemma. The Iphofen plant (district of Kitzingen) has its own train station; one or two trains arrive there every week, bringing plaster from Lusatia. The company also relies on rail whenever possible for traffic between Knauf factories, alluvial warehouses and for individual customer transports. But that doesn’t always work.
“There is currently no alternative to lorries when transporting from our quarries in the region to the factories.”
Drte Maltzahn, Knauf Gips KG in Iphofen–
“There is currently no alternative to trucks for transport from our quarries in the region to the factories,” says Maltzahn. When it comes to delivering to customers, the truck is “indispensable for the time being” as the main means of transport. Building material dealers and construction sites are distributed decentrally and have to be supplied with various products “just in time”, i.e. precisely on site.
For this reason, according to Maltzahn, alternative drives are very important for Knauf. For a year now, the company has been testing a truck on the A5 autobahn near Darmstadt that is powered by electricity via an overhead line: “This is a possible alternative for metropolitan areas such as Rhine-Main.”
IHK expert: There is a shortage in Mainfranken, Germany, Europe
Companies are increasingly focusing on climate-neutral logistics, says Christian Seynstahl from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Wrzburg-Schweinfurt – also because customers and partners are increasingly demanding this. But in order to transport more goods by rail, the available capacities would have to be better used and the infrastructure would have to be expanded across Europe, says the regional development officer. “The capacity at the Brenner, for example, influences all of Northern European rail traffic.”
Logistics expert Mller-Steinfahrt also points out: “If Mainfranken wants to be part of a sustainable transport chain, then you definitely have to strengthen the rail transport infrastructure.”
The terminal in Schweinfurt, where goods are transferred from trucks to trains or vice versa, would have to be expanded, says Mller-Steinfahrt. In addition, new routes are needed, the occupancy times of the rails must be improved in comparison with passenger traffic. Routes on which only goods are transported are conceivable.
“It clearly has to be more on the rails,” says Mller-Steinfahrt. “And wherever it is not possible to use the rails, the land transport must be used as much as possible.” Because many trucks drive part of the route empty: They drive fully loaded to the north and come back to Mainfranken without freight.
Take Bosch Rexroth as an example: fewer trips, more by train
The industrial company Bosch Rexroth is planning a new logistics center in Lohr am Main (district of Main-Spessart): “As a central warehouse, it should replace the many small, decentralized warehouse locations,” says spokeswoman Nicole von Killisch-Horn. This would reduce internal transport through the city and lower CO2 emissions. Bosch Rexroth aims to save around 32 tons of CO2 per year by 2024 and around 75 tons of CO2 per year from 2027.
So far, the company has mainly transported from Lohr by truck, transports from Europe to other continents have been made by ship. In the future, the company intends to increasingly shift transports abroad to rail, says Killisch-Horn: “The essential prerequisites for this are a well-developed rail infrastructure and appropriate providers, across national borders.”
Train or truck: those who drive more climate-friendly
A truck emits around a third less CO2 today than in 1995, according to the Federal Environment Agency. But as more and more trucks are on the road, the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions in road traffic has risen from around 39 to over 47 million tonnes in 2019.
Sea DB Cargo 450 freight trains drive through Bavaria every day, or start or end here. 230 planners and dispatchers ensured that this went smoothly. Jan Reuter, Head of Cargo Management Region Sd, says: “Rail is by far the most environmentally friendly means of transport.”
His bill: If a freight train transports a ton of goods a kilometer, it emits around 40 percent less CO2 than a barge and 80 percent less than a truck. If the train were to run entirely on green electricity, it would be 100 percent less the transport would be climate-neutral.
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