Prihláste sa na odber noviniek
Cars transported by freight rail wagons are not only exported from Slovakia, but they also transit across this country and are destined for import too, even in the form of single wagonload shipments.
About 10% of Slovak GDP and up to 43% of Slovak exports are dependent on the automotive industry. Four car manufacturers in the country will soon be joined by a fifth one. And while truck transport dominates the inbound supply chain in automotive, the railway is an important part of the export of finished products. It is even one of the few industries in Slovakia where the railway dominates in the export of finished products and not in the import of raw materials and semi-finished products.
And while the focus is on the export of new car production to end markets and ports for overseas export, less is talked about the import and transit of new and used vehicles by rail. At the same time, these transports are carried out by ZSSK CARGO on much longer distances than newly produced cars from western Slovakia to the western borders of the country.
Transit transportation of cars on rails
Despite (and perhaps because of) the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, there is still a demand for cars in this country. And the railway is a good way to get them across the border without long waiting times at borders. Thus, in 2024, ZSSK CARGO participated in the transit of several transports of new cars from a German port to Ukraine. In a similar way, cars of a prestigious brand traveled from Germany on the normal gauge towards Ukraine, just like the used electric cars imported through the Polish port.
Automotive train building in Slovakia
Trains for export to Ukraine are also made in dispatch centers at car manufacturers directly in Slovakia. This year, there was a significant increase. While 11 trains for Ukraine were formed in this way in 2023, in 2024 there were already 37 trains by September 2024.
In Slovakia, not only locally produced cars are loaded on the siding of a local car company, but also various types of cars (including pickups) are collected here and then sent in complete trains to the east. In this way, for example, the Czech car company imports up to two train sets full of new cars a week, which then travel to customers in showrooms. The supply of wagons to and from the siding in Slovakia and subsequent traction across Slovakia is provided by ZSSK CARGO.
An industry sensitive to fluctuations
The team responsible for the automotive sector at ZSSK CARGO agrees that this is not an easy type of industry to work with. Many external factors cause strong fluctuations in production and consumer markets - Mikuláš Sabó and Marcel Minich, as business managers for the automotive sector - must react flexibly to all of them.
"You can't plan on an annual basis. The industry is very sensitive to changes. If semiconductors were missing and the car company could not secure them from alternative sources, production dropped immediately - and so did the volume of new vehicle shipments," explains Mikuláš Sabó.
Current trends in the world and the popularity of models in different parts of the world also play a role in what and how much is transported by rail. "For example, from the production lines in Bratislava, mainly Superbs travel to Poland, while SUVs such as the Q7 go to China and the USA through the seaports. When in Turkey, also an important market, hyperinflation hit and people could not afford what they had used to, it also affected the orders and the transports. They can stop suddenly, and you can quickly go from 4-5 trains a week to zero, or vice versa," adds Marcel Minich.
Business managers in this industry must be able to react to changed requirements on a daily basis, also affected by regular shutdowns in this industry. When this happens, few people think about the impact on rail transport. But the impact is there – with the need of parking empty sets of wagons for the transportation of new cars as close as possible to assembly lines for fast availability once the shutdown is over. The modernization of the railway infrastructure in Slovakia, often resulting in less sidetracks, means fewer and fewer possibilities of depositing empty sets. These are just some of many daily challenges that Mikuláš Sabo and Marcel Minich at ZSSK CARGO have to deal with on a daily basis.
Cars in the single wagonload system? It is possible!
Transporting new cars to dealers by train is almost as rare as delivering food to stores by rail in Slovakia. But even here there is an exception that shows that it is possible - and in the system of single wagonloads of ZSSK CARGO, one customer uses it even when importing new cars for sale - more ecologically than by road.
This seller is a Poprad car dealer, which imports new cars from the Czech Republic in single wagonloads. However, the seller has a suitable infrastructure in the Poprad-Tatry station. This is because ZSSK ends regular passenger trains transporting cars of the travelers from Prague – a service to people who want to sleep comfortably on the train, but still want to have their own car available when coming to High Tatra mountains. An unloading ramp in the station is adapted for unloading cars. The ramp thus has a dual usage – for unloading of new cars delivered by ZSSK CARGO for dealership too. This is proof that when there is suitable infrastructure, such as railway sidings and unloading and loading tracks, we can still keep the goods on the railway and shift more volumes to rails.
Photos: Štefan Kováčik, Mates Pleško, Matúš Puček, ZSSK CARGO
