Piggyback transportation between the Mostyska terminal in Ukraine and the Forst terminal in Germany will resume on 1 July, the CFTS portal reports, citing information from the companies implementing the project.
The LION Group (the Forst terminal), N'UNIT (the Mostyska terminal), and GOL are launching the new project.
Lemtrans, a co-owner of Container Terminal Mostyska, has also announced plans to resume regular piggyback transport services between Ukraine and Germany via the Mostyska-Forst route.
This service utilizes a continuous logistics cycle with three sets of trailers, totaling 100. One set will be in motion while the second is being loaded and the third is being unloaded. This setup ensures a steady transportation rhythm without delays or downtime.
According to GOL, this route existed from 2023 to 2024. In particular, it was actively used when Polish farmers blockaded the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Several importers and exporters of automotive production components used this route until autumn 2024.
Although the route was available to the market, auto parts accounted for 80% of the traffic through it, so it remained rather narrowly focused. Now, however, the route is opening fully to the broader market.
"This is a high-quality alternative to road transport. A parallel can be drawn here: containers with imports destined for Kyiv can be transported via Romania, Odesa, Chornomorsk, or Poland. Similarly, cargoes from southern, central, and western Germany can be transported simply by truck or piggyback train. You can objectively assess the pros and cons and decide what will be more profitable for your situation," said GOL's Commercial Director Volodymyr Huz.
"The most profitable option is obviously the combined one, in which a business has a constant cargo flow through a piggyback train and supplements it with road transport. This ensures that the business is not dependent on fluctuations in the road transport market and allows for stable cost planning of its products," he added.
The partner companies are planning to expand their operations in preparation for peak demand in autumn 2025. They intend to attract regular customers and introduce twice-weekly departures, which will allow them to attract additional cargo.
They are aiming for fully loaded rolling stock in both directions by the end of June, which will allow full-scale commercial use of the route from early July.
During the pilot phase, one set of flatcars will be leased for trailers and containers (5 and 10 respectively), along with about 60 swap bodies (exchangeable containers) and 24 trailers. A daily service will be provided on the Forst-Mostyska route, with first- and last-mile delivery arranged at both ends.
The weight limit for trailers will be 22 tons. The limit in Germany is 24 tons, with the potential to increase to 26 tons in the future.
For three months, the train will operate and be filled with cargo at no additional cost. A key advantage is the short transit time of about 20 hours, including the border crossing.
"Customers will not have to handle each car separately because this can be done through a single operator who will handle all related issues. This eliminates the risk of border blockades, car breakdowns, and document issues at the automobile border crossing. Although delivery will generally take 3-4 days longer, it will be profitable in terms of stability and price," said Huz.
The CFTS portal previously reported on a joint project to launch piggyback transportation involving Container Terminal Mostyska, N'UNIT, and the Germany-based LION Group. About 120 semi-trailers are imported and exported every month. The main cargo consists of automotive industry products shipped to and from Germany.
As the CFTS portal previously reported, the Ukrainian industrial company Interpipe uses this route to deliver its products by rail to mitigate the risk of blockade of the Ukrainian-Polish border.
In an interview with the CFTS portal, Yevhen Anikin, head of Interpipe’s logistics and customs control department, said the company loads its products onto a truck in Dnipro. The truck then travels to Mostyska, a town on the border with Poland. There, the truck is loaded onto a railway flatcar that is part of a freight train bound for Forst, Germany. A new truck then takes the products from Forst to the end customer. If the shipment is not destined for Germany, the products are unloaded from the train at another location.
According to him, the trucks are loaded onto railway flatcars at Container Terminal Mostyska. The terminal that handles container trains in Germany belongs to the Lion Group and is located in Forst.
The Ukrainian terminal uses special flatcars and systems that allow it to load any type of semi-trailer. Transshipment is performed using two reach stackers equipped with special grippers known as combi-spreaders.
Recently, it was reported that the container company Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) acquired 50% of the Ukrainian intermodal logistics operator N'UNIT, as well as 25% of Container Terminal Mostyska. Lemtrans and Real Trans Investment are investors in this project, while N'UNIT and Levada Cargo are partners in developing the container transportation business. This was announced by Yehor Hrebennikov, who is the founder of N'UNIT and owns shares in Mostyska Dry Port Limited.
The Mostyska container terminal, which is located on the Ukrainian-Polish border, began operations in the summer of 2022. The Lemtrans group and the Rail Trans Investment company invested in the project, and the N'UNIT and Levada Cargo companies partnered with it to develop its container transportation business.
