An ideal hub for logistics
ONE of Wallonia’s primary propositions as the ideal European base for international organisations will be boosted in 2015 with the completion of the new Trilogiport multimodal platform to the north of Liège, home to Belgium’s leading inland port (it handled 19-million tons in 2012) and the thirdlargest inland port in Europe.
The Trilogiport, says manager for logistics in Wallonia, Bernard Piette, is a “veritable logistics village” covering more than 100 hectares between the Albert Canal (which links the Meuse River to Antwerp) and the Meuse.
The development includes a 15-hectare container terminal, which will have capacity for 200,000 containers and access to 700m of quayside along the Albert Canal for loading and unloading. There will also be 41.7 hectares of logistical plots designed to provide premises for distribution centres which need storage space and/or areas for repacking, packing and assembling goods.
The Trilogiport, which is being developed by the Liège Port Authority, also provides 14.7 hectares of port plots that are available to companies involved in transport by water. These areas have direct quayside access. There’s also a traditional port service area of 1.8 hectares dedicated to tertiary port services such as banking. Almost 25 hectares of the Trilogiport’s total surface area is earmarked for environmental and urban developments surrounding the working area. This will include orchards, gardens, cycling and walking paths, ponds and wooded areas.
Located at the hub of a major motorway and rail network and close to Liège Airport — which is Europe’s eighth-largest cargo airport — and within easy reach of a highspeed train station, the Trilogiport will further expedite trouble-free, fast-paced access to key European cities. It also has good connections with seaports such as Antwerp (15 hours’ sailing), Rotterdam (24 hours) and Dunkirk (48 hours).
“The new development assures Wallonia’s status as logistics leader by providing a first class quadric-modal infrastructure by way of waterways, rail, road and air,” says Piette.
“The Trilogiport is a great opportunity for companies relying on the waterways for transport and for major distribution centres that want fast and easy access to the rest of Europe, whether via the rivers, roads, rail or airlines.”
Aside from increasing Wallonia’s potential for movement by waterway and accommodating new investors, the Trilogiport will facilitate the creation of 2,000 new jobs. It is also considered important in terms of the region’s efforts towards sustainable development by transferring a proportion of tonnage transported by road to the greener waterway route.
“This is not only important because it helps protect the environment, it also helps reduce congestion on the roads,” says Piette, whose organisation, Logistics in Wallonia, is one of the six competitiveness clusters set up by the Walloon government within the framework of the Marshall Plan that was launched to boost the Walloon economy.
The cluster’s objective is to stimulate and support all innovations in the logistics sector. It serves as a research consultancy and helps shape and roll out projects in four primary themes — multimodality, the securing of logistical chains, sustainable logistics and internal company logistics.
“But we essentially have three missions at Logistics in Wallonia,” explains Piette. “We encourage innovation in logistics via our dedicated innovation department, which co-operates with businesses and universities; we facilitate networking between players in the transportation and logistics industries and provide training opportunities; and we promote Wallonia and its impressive logistics record. The objective is to let the world know the advantages offered by the region in transportation and logistics. The Trilogiport is just one example of this. There’s also the fact that Wallonia is included in the first European high-speed rail freight network.”
Liège will be one of the first European “railports” at the heart of the new high-speed 100% freight train Euro Carex network along with Paris, Frankfurt, Cologne, Lyon, London and Amsterdam.
The idea of the Euro Carex is to use the European high-speed rail network to carry airfreight pallets and containers over distances of between 300km and 800km. This involves modal shifts from trucks and short- and mid-range aircraft to high-speed trains wherever appropriate; connecting airport-based air/rail terminals to high-speed rail links; and a service tailored to suit the logistics chains and transport plans of integrators, with priority given to express freight to guarantee next-day delivery, followed by less urgent air cargo freight.
The system is scheduled to be operational by 2017.