News / MSC's Medlog wins contract to operate trimodal hub serving Paris

MSC logistics arm Medlog has been tasked with the development of a trimodal – river, rail and road – hub at Bruyères-sur-Oise, around 40km from Paris, with container traffic identified as a key segment for growth.

Haropa Port, a public agency bringing together the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, which owns the site, said the aim was to strengthen “the green multimodal logistics corridor along the Seine by significantly increasing rail and river traffic and preparing the connection between the Seine and the Oise (rivers) to the future Seine-North Europe Canal”.

It added that the hub would also encourage intermodal transport and accelerate the decarbonisation of last-mile deliveries.

Medlog submitted the winning bid to run the hub following a call for projects launched by Haropa Port last year. It is scheduled to enter service at the end of the third quarter of 2024 and handle a diverse range of goods and freight flows including containers, bulk, swapbodies and heavyweight parcels.

It will also serve as a centre for the export-standard reconditioning of food-grade and refrigerated containers and be equipped to maintain the temperature of full refrigerated containers, as well as offering maintenance and repair services.

The contract award to Medlog is the culmination of a decade of planning, with Haropa Port having spent around €5m on a three-hectare river terminal at the site in 2012, and a further €2.4m in 2021 on a 2.1 ha rail terminal, a spokesperson for the port group told The Loadstar.

Up to now it has mainly been used for transhipment activities for bulk commodities such as steel wire, cereals, soil and construction debris.

A spokesperson for MSC told The Loadstar: “The hub will start operating multiple weekly connections between Le Havre and Bruyère sur Oise, serving all types of industries in Paris and its region (France’s leading consumer catchment area), as well as the national hinterland via the rail connection.”

The spokesperson declined to disclose the amount MSC/Medlog is investing in the hub, nor the volume of traffic it is looking to generate, adding: “In terms of capacity, and again without giving figures, the trimodal site will ensure it meets capacity needs in line with the current and future demand.

“The fact that Medlog brings its solid expertise in moving goods via containers through multimodal transport solutions will enable higher volume flows.”