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Freight enters a new era: Railion is maintaining a fast pace of reform and expansion.

Article Excerpt
GERMAN Rail's (DB) freight business has been altered radically, following its takeover of Stinnes, an international logistics and freight company, in September last year. DB Cargo has been renamed Railion Germany, as a sister company to Railion Netherlands and Railion Denmark, DB Dutch and Danish railfreight subsidiaries. Together they look after all the railfreight operations of Stinnes, which has three other subsidiaries: Schenker, which has a global distribution network and is responsible for packaged goods, now including automotive; Freight Logistics for transport and logistics of bulk goods mainly in Europe; and Intermodal.

According to Dr Bernd Malmstrom, chairman of Stinnes and a member of the board of management of DB responsible for freight transport and logistics, the names Stinnes and Schenker have a high value and will be retained. Only the Railion name is new, and Malmstrom made it clear that this rail partnership is also open to others.

Malmstrom explained why DB decided to move into logistics: "A railway that focuses on A to B, as DB Cargo used to, is not future-oriented. About 85% of our business is with 52 customers. It is becoming more and more important to deliver packages, which necessarily include other transport providers and certain logistics competences....