By this, the company, which is the only one fulfilling the government program's rail logistics tasks, has already delivered 30,000 m3 of solid fuel to its destinations since October 2022. Managing this assignment is only possible in the scope of RCH's nationwide single wagon transport service. The company provides all the necessary capacities for the successful implementation of the government initiative lasting until April 2023.
Hundreds of thousands of kilometres loaded with wood
Wood meeting the winter energy demands of families is provided by the forestry companies in Western Hungary, from there RCH transports it to the wood-poor lowland region and the Budapest area. The sales points are located up to 300-400 kilometres from the production site, therefore the mileage of RCH trains reaches hundreds of thousands of kilometres.
Transporting firewood by single wagon technology is an exceptionally complex and resource-intensive rail service: depending on the felling, forestry companies deliver two to three wagons of wood to 29 loading points. From there, RCH-locomotives transport the loaded wagons to a marshalling yard, where trains are formed, and block trains are forwarded to 12 destinations. To complete one of these transport tasks, 4 to 5 shunting operations have to be performed at each marshalling point by a separate shunting locomotive. For example, the route Lenti–Nagycsere is completed by five separate trains, through marshalling operations.
State support is essential
This activity, consisting of costly sub-tasks, is made possible by the government support system of single wagon transport, which provides a partial compensation for the costs of shunting locomotives operated on the secondary line, shunting, technical, commercial and operational staff, and the costs of operating the marshalling yards. To date, the market-leading rail freight company has used some 750 dedicated wagons for the transport of cylindric firewood, and hundreds of specialists are involved in the forwarding of the trains.