King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and his wife, Queen Máxima, concluded their two-day visit to Poland yesterday. One of the final points of the Royal couple’s visit was participating in the ceremony for the signing of the foundation act for the construction of the CLIP intermodal container terminal in Swarzędz, as well as the second anniversary of the launch of the rail connection between the Port of Rotterdam and the Swarzędz terminal.
– Constant economic growth and the associated increase in imports and exports make Poland currently particularly interesting for the Port of Rotterdam and the companies operating there – says Steven Lak from the Port of Rotterdam Promotion Council.
The rail connection between Rotterdam and Poland, operated by the Dutch operator ERS Railway, is one of the most important areas of Polish-Dutch cooperation. The official launch of this line took place in May 2012, and over these two years, more than eight hundred trains have traveled in both directions on the route, which has helped reduce the number of road freight transport by 25,000 truck journeys. The new CLIP container terminal currently under construction in Swarzędz, the inauguration of which took place in the presence of the royal couple, will be able to handle approximately 150,000 containers annually. The investment is co-financed by the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme and is scheduled to be completed in 2016. The finished facility will be one of the largest intermodal terminals in Poland.
The visit of the King and Queen of the Netherlands to the CLIP Terminal lasted about 30 minutes and concluded with the symbolic loading of a container onto a rail wagon and the unveiling of an impressive graphic on a locomotive, depicting the panoramas of Poznań and Rotterdam, a ribbon with the flags of Poland and the Netherlands, and the slogan “Linked by rail”.
