INLAND/INTERMODAL NEWS
WorldCargo
news
BNSF sticking with OASIS Glückauf Express starts
Atlanta-based rail software service pro- tomate equipment tracking, container egy to maintain excellence and competi-
The cooperation between the ports of with direct access to the large sea ports
vider RMI has announced a new five- stacking optimisation, and railcar assign- tion in any type of product.”
Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Dort- in Belgium and the Netherlands,” com-
year agreement with BNSF Railway for ment.” RMI is now enhancing OASIS to BNSF also uses RMI’s OASIS Van-
mund is growing. A new rail shuttle mented Duisburger Hafen AG’s CEO
the continued use of its OASIS software “further automate intermodal terminal tage Business Intelligence interface for
service, the Glückauf Express, will con- Erich Staake.
to run BNSF’s intermodal terminals. operations” and “integration with real-time visibility into intermodal op-
nect the three ports wth a daily pair As regards incoming cargo, shippers
At the same time, RMI announced widespan cranes and other intermodal erations. The Vantage architecture and
every working day, to build an even at the Marl Chemsite will benefit par-
that BNSF Railway has successfully im- yard equipment and the addition of so- application was also developed by OA and
tighter network in the metropolitan ticularly from the new rail connection
plemented the latest release of OASIS for phisticated optimisation logic are integral adopted by several class I railroads and
Ruhr area. via Duisburg and the new connection
use with wide-span cranes at the BNSF components of our product roadmap” said Tideworks, which began offering it as an
The initial capacity of the train serv- to Dortmund and the large German
Seattle International Gateway (SIG) RMI vice president of Intermodal Scott integrated real time visibility tool for its
ice will be 60 TEU per day, which will North Sea ports, adds Duisport.
intermodal terminal. Holland. Mainsail TOS in 2005. Both companies
take some 16,000 trucks off the regional “The shuttle service is another ma-
OASIS was originally developed by While there may be some duplication, competing for rail business would likely
highways annually. jor step forward to making the Ruhr
Optimization Alternatives (OA), which Kelly said that the Timeworks project and have been a factor in Tideworks decision
“Through Glückauf Express we are region the largest inland shipping hub
was acquired by RMI in February 2008. development with RMI are unrelated and to replace Vantage with an in-house de-
promoting the integration of the Ruhr in Europe with the Port of Duisburg
BNSF has been using OASIS at its that BNSF is “exploring/learning about veloped visibility tool called Digital
transportation system and we also pro- as the leading gateway to the markets
intermodal terminals since 1996, but more viable options as part of our normal strat- Bridge which was launched last July.
vide Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund of Central Europe,” said the company.
recently had been considering planning
software from port industry software lead-
ers Navis and Tideworks as part of its plan
to implement wide-span cranes and
densify its intermodal terminals. Late last
year Tideworks looked to have emerged
as the victor in that battle when it an-
nounced a pilot project to install its Spin-
naker Planning Management System and
Traffic Control solutions at BNSF’s Alli-
ance Intermodal Facility in Fort Worth,
Texas. Tideworks was selected, among
other reasons, for its experience with and
specialist applications for managing
stacked containers.
Tideworks’ Harvey Bauer says the Al-
liance project is still proceeding, but BNSF
now appears to have made a commitment
to develop the same functionality with
RMI. OASIS is essentially an intermodal
TOS that uses algorithms to plan and
manage trains and rail terminals in the
same way that a TOS manages a marine
terminal.
“Oasis has provided a very reliable
Terminal operating system for BNSF’s
Intermodal Hubs and the new I CAN
(Intermodal Crane Automation Network)
co-developed by BNSF and OASIS looks
very promising,” said BNSF’s Tom Kelly,
director, system intermodal hub Opera-
tions and technology in a statement.
RMI says I CAN is designed to “au-
Czech mate
in Brest
OKD Doprava of the Czech Republic re-
cently acquired a 90% stake in Belterminal,
the gauge change terminal in the Belarusian
city of Brest on the Polish border for an
estimated US$3.65M.
The facility’s private investors have
been bought out and the Brest Regional
Administration has cut its stake from
73.5% to 10%. Belterminal’s director
Sergey Karako commented that inward
investment was sought for some time.
Belterminal occupies 13.3 hectares
and comprises 35 buildings and ware-
houses with a total area of 20,500 m
2
,
and is historically the main gauge break
between standard and Russian broad
gauge.
Doprava promised to invest at least
US$15M in modernising the facility, cre-
ating new jobs and and bringing new traf-
fic flows to the terminal, in order to avoid
competition with Belaruskaya Chyhunka
(Belarusian Railways).
“The purchase was part of our strate-
gic vision in logistics,” said Doprava’s
chairman and CEO Attila Boros. “We
count on more investments as we want
to build up a state-of-the art terminal.”
Recently trials with trains carrying cargo
from Korea to Europe via the TSR have
been handled over Belterminal. In the
long term, Doprava plans to launch pig-
gyback services through the facility.
Doprava is part of the transport divi-
sion of the New World Resources
(NWR) mining group controlled by
Czech billionaire Zdenek Bakala. Last year
it obtained long-term loans from ING
Bank and UniCredit Bank for a total of
E83M, which the company plans to use
for funding both its existing investment
projects and acquiring new assets.
Doprava is the second largest and big-
gest prviate railway carrier in the Czech
Republic, while its road has a fleet of
more than 120 trucks and 140 trailers.
March 2009 17
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