To speak of rail freight transport is to speak of a strategically crucial business across multiple economic sectors. The proper functioning of a large number of highly important companies, as well as the accurate and timely distribution of goods arriving daily to tens of thousands of points of sale throughout the country and to a significant number of EU and non-EU countries, including the Maghreb, depend on its effective coordination and constant adaptability.
Rail freight transport is a key strategy for Renfe, aligned with European Union guidelines. The safety of transporting hazardous goods, the reduced space requirements, greater environmental impact, and the cost savings resulting from road congestion make rail a powerful means of freight transport.
Renfe has two areas dedicated to this transport: Freight and Combined Transport.
Cargas provides full rail freight services, offering customized origin/destination train options and integrating logistics into rail operations. Transporte Combinado, on the other hand, specializes in container transport and distribution logistics. Together, these two business units transport over 26 million tons of goods annually between different geographical points in Spain and even across parts of the rest of Europe.
Logistics is a fundamental tool for business management, both for Renfe itself and for its customers, who organize their assembly, delivery and storage chains based on the transport carried out by Cargas y Transporte Combinado.
Two large organizations serving the customer
Renfe Freight employs 3.700 professionals. It also has its own fleet of 12.300 railcars adapted for transporting various types of goods. This is complemented by a fleet of 7.500 railcars owned by partner companies, allowing it to offer more specialized services.
It also has 302 mainline locomotives and 113 shunting tractors, which enable a daily hauling capacity of more than 150.000 net tons and allow an average of 400 trains to be put into circulation daily, connecting the entire peninsular geography.
The main sectors in which Renfe Cargo operates are: Steel (finished products, semi-finished products and raw materials); Automotive (vehicles and their components); Energy (coal); Oil (liquid fuels and liquefied gases under pressure); Construction (cements, prefabricated elements, stone blocks, ceramic paving and aggregates); Chemical (products manufactured by the basic chemical industry for subsequent processing); Agri-food (cereals, flours, beets, animal feed, fertilizers and compost); Forestry (wood and paper); and Special Transport (pieces and elements of exceptional weight and dimensions).
The combined use of maritime and land transport, including rail, results in combined transport. This is known as intermodality. Combined Transport connects daily with any point in Spain or the rest of Europe via this intermodal network—rail, road, and sea—transporting all types of high-value goods: food, automotive components, textiles, household appliances, chemicals, etc., in containers, swap bodies, and semi-trailers.
The Combined Transport logistics support, with 1.600 employees, consists of express container trains (TECO) and a network of logistics activity terminals and modal exchange that allows us to offer more than 800 standardized logistics solutions daily.
Transporte Combinado focuses its commercial activity on three sectors: land, sea, and international. Each sector has its own organization to serve distinct markets and a portfolio of clients with their own unique characteristics.
The land transport sector handles the domestic transport of containerized goods, serving a diverse clientele that includes small and large businesses, intermodal operators, road haulers, and others. The maritime sector transports containers generated by ports, typically for import, export, or inter-island traffic, and its clients are usually shipping companies or maritime operators. Finally, the international sector manages container traffic between Spain and the rest of Europe (both EU and non-EU countries) and the Maghreb. The clients of this sector are international operators.
Transporte Combinado, in its effort to provide the best logistics solutions to its clients, has recently created a new product called TMD (Teco Media Distancia). This innovative commercial offering is based on daytime trains with maximum distances of around 300 kilometers, multi-frequency services, and direct connections in both directions.
Goods in Europe no longer have borders.
March 15th was a historic day for European rail transport, as the first rail package came into force in the Member States, making rail freight transport more competitive and more European. This package comprises a series of measures related to opening up the international transport market, enabling railway companies to provide competitive European services based on industry and carrier demand. All of this aims to revitalize rail transport and facilitate the transfer of some road freight to rail.
Freight rail is becoming a cornerstone of European economic sustainability. Road congestion and its resulting environmental impact are driving the European Union to make a strong commitment to rail transport, given its capacity to move large volumes of cargo over long distances with minimal space requirements and using electricity generated at a single point.
The objective of the European Economic Community is very clear: international transport trains must be able to cross borders without administrative and legal obstacles and take advantage of the technical improvements already provided by the industry.
The logistics offering of international rail freight transport is currently one of the economic instruments available to Spanish companies to facilitate the penetration of their products into international markets.
Aware of the progressive globalization of the economy, which fosters a continuous increase in the exchange of goods in Europe, Cargas y Transporte Combinado has developed a comprehensive offering of solutions for this traffic, undertaking projects for logistics facilities at borders, as well as improving border crossings through the application of new techniques. They also maintain an active presence in international transport and logistics forums and organizations, and collaborate with other European railways in the creation and development of international corridors. Furthermore, they promote the formation of partnerships and alliances that will allow them to enhance their position in international freight transport.
Goods are transported daily between Spain and the rest of the European Union countries: Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, Benelux, Italy, France, and other non-EU countries, as well as the Maghreb.
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