The railway is gaining more weight in the Port of Valencia. 13 trains a day, 90 a week, 380 trains a month. In total, 4,634 trains entered or left the Valencian precinct in 2022, 9% more than in 2021. Trains that are longer, with more wagons and carrying more containers and goods. And the trend for the coming years is that this figure will continue to increase, both in Valencia and in Sagunto, the latter port where work is being done on rail access.
This is no coincidence. It is the commitment that the Port Authority of Valencia has been making for years to promote the rail-sea interconnection for the transport of goods. The objective is clear: to considerably increase the 4% share of the train in the movement of goods and products in order to get closer to the European average of 18%. In fact, the APV has budgeted 240 million Euro for actions with the locomotive and wagons as the main characters, in addition to other projects such as the Valencia-Madrid railway motorway, the support to loading points in its hinterland or the use of new technologies in the sector.
According to the Port of Valencia’s rail-port traffic data, in 2022 a total of 4,634 trains entered or left the Valencian docks compared to approximately 4,200 in 2021. In addition, the average length of these trains was 495 metres compared to 485 in the previous year, while the number of wagons in 2022 rose to 87,070 compared to 76,563 in 2021, which represents an increase of 15%.
In 2022, a total of 2,230,683 goods were transported by rail, 8% more than in 2021, and 236,142 TEUs (standard 20-foot containers) were used, 21,594 containers more than in the previous year, an increase of 10%. In addition, the container data shows an upward trend in recent years, in 2021 the share of containers moved by train compared to the Port’s total was 7.8%, a figure which in 2022 stood at 8.9%.
The president of the PAV, Aurelio Martínez, has highlighted “the investment effort that Valenciaport has been making in recent years, with more than 240 million euros, is paying off. The railway is a key element in the movement structure of the Port of Valencia, as the figures show. Our aim is to keep on increasing this traffic share, betting on the train, long-distance lines, loading points, the support to railway connections and the improvement of infrastructures in our inland network”.
“These are very positive figures that prove the Port’s efforts in its commitment to intermodality and the railways, with important investments that we are making, which are favouring the increase in traffic. These are actions that make us continue to make progress. In fact, so far this year we have reached a quota of 99 trains per week”, the head of Valenciaport pointed out.
Railways gaining more weight in the Port of Valencia. Image: Port Authority of Valencia