19.7.2024

Dear Customers,

Allow us to evaluate the current situation, which greatly affects the entire transport chain.
The conflict in the Red Sea, the shortage of containers, the limited capacity of shipping space and the overcrowding of ports have started a wave of discussions and concerns across the logistics sector. Even we, as an intermodal transport provider, must state that we are confronted with force majeure obstacles, such as recent port strikes, lockouts, limited capacity of rail corridors or unexpected political decisions by governments.

Despite these tough challenges, we have good news for you.

Following the recent announcement by the Hungarian government regarding the increase of prices for the use of the local railway infrastructure, negotiations were held with the support of the associations of which we are members, which resulted in a positive outcome. The mentioned increase will not apply to already established trains in the regular timetable. Based on this fact, we are pleased to inform you that we will NOT introduce the Rail Infrastructure Surcharge (RIS) as of 1 September 2024. The exception to which the surcharge will apply will be special connections operated outside the regular timetable.
The RIS surcharge in German infrastructure will remain in force.

Although the circumstances are not exactly favourable for business both from an operational and financial point of view, we would like to assure you that we are not currently planning to introduce any additional surcharge. At the same time, we firmly believe that with joint efforts we will be able to overcome this negative trend. We highly value the cooperation with our business partners and the professionalism of the associations, thanks to which we managed to achieve success in the negotiations. We believe that it will strengthen confidence in the railways as well as the prestige of combined transport.

We are constantly monitoring the situation on the transport market and will keep you informed.

METRANS Team