Crossrail AG

Crossrail AG
legal form	Corporation
founding	2005
resolution	2018
Reason for dissolution	Merger with Cargologic
Seat	Muttenz , Switzerland
Branch	transport
Website	crossrail.ch

The Crossrail AG ( VKM : CROSS) was a railway transport company based in the Swiss Muttenz , carried out the only freight, while on transalpine traffic via Lötschberg-Simplon and Gotthard with trains concentrated between Italy, Germany, Belgium and Holland. The holding company was dissolved in 2018 by the majority owner Rhenus and sold to sister company Cargologic in Switzerland. The remaining, former subsidiary Crossrail Benelux (VKM: XRAIL) was sold to the Swiss company BLS AG in 2019 .

history

Crossrail was created as the brand name of the Swiss railway company Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG (RM) for the operation of unaccompanied combined transport (UCT) on the transalpine axis Italy - Switzerland - Germany via Simplon - Lötschberg. Operations started on January 5, 2004.

Old Crossrail logo

As early as February 2004, in connection with the envisaged merger with BLS Lötschbergbahn , RM announced that it wanted to spin off Crossrail from RM as an independent company with “strategic partners” in the long term and not bring it into the merged company. In May 2005, the RM informed about specific preparations for a sale. The merger of RM and BLS to form the new BLS AG was completed in June 2006. On December 20, 2005, RM and Babcock & Brown (B&B) announced the sale of all Crossrail shares effective January 1, 2006 to B&B. The “Cargodrome Wiler” crane terminal, which went into operation in 2003, was also sold to B&B.

In January 2006, Crossrail owner B&B ordered 25 multi-system and 10 diesel-electric locomotives from Bombardier Transportation as well as options for 70 further machines for the leasing company CB Rail , which belongs to the B&B area , which is operated by Crossrail on the Betuwe route between the ports , which was opened in 2007 from Rotterdam and the Ruhr area were used.

In June 2007 the forwarding activities were sold to the Dutch company Ewals Cargo Care in order to concentrate only on block train traffic. In October 2007, Crossrail announced its intention to merge with the Belgian railway company Dillen & Le Jeune Cargo (DLC). The resulting company Crossrail AG continued to have its headquarters in Wiler near Utzenstorf until February 2010 . Babcock & Brown and the founders of DLC became owners. The founders of DLC were responsible for running the business and Babcock & Brown for the "financial and strategic development" of Crossrail. DLC was founded in 2000 by Jeroen Le Jeune and Ronny Dillen with the Swiss company Hupac as partners. In 2002 DLC was certified as the first private railway company (EVU) for the Belgian railway network and in the following year as a private operator for the Dutch railway network. After the collapse and liquidation of Babcock & Brown, Jeroen Le Jeune took over the majority in the group in summer 2010.

New shareholders were added in 2012; the shareholder structure was as follows: Le Jeune Capital & Partners AG with 20% of the capital; the Austrian transport company LKW Walter (25%), Hupac (25%), GTS General Transport Service (10%), MSC Belgium (part of the Mediterranean Shipping Company group) (10%) and the Swiss transport company Bertschi (10%). On December 22, 2014, Rhenus Holding took over the majority of the shares in Crossrail with 50.1%. The previous shareholders have reduced their shares accordingly, so that LKW Walter still holds 16.46 percent, Hupac 13.44 percent and Le Jeune 10 percent of the shares. With a total of 370 employees, an annual turnover of CHF 140 million was achieved in 2014. Since a recapitalization in April 2016, Crossrail has been 75% owned by Rhenus; 25% were owned by LKW Walter. In mid-2018, Crossrail's Swiss activities were sold to the logistics company Cargologic, a Swiss sister company in the Rhenus Group, and the AG was deleted from the commercial register, while the subsidiary Crossrail Benelux remained with Rhenus. On March 7, 2019, the Swiss rail freight operator BLS Cargo announced the purchase of Crossrail Benelux, subject to the approval of the relevant competition authorities.

Personnel, vehicles, transport performance

Crossrail has specialized in block trains and now operates a route network in six countries. For various operators such as GTS, TTS, LKW Walter, Inter Ferry Boats or Ewals Cargo Care, Crossrail provides services on north-south connections via Gotthard and Lötschberg to Italy.

With the transition to Crossrail on January 1st, 2006, the new company took over all workers and employees of the logistics + freight transport division of RM and all means of production used in freight transport. Crossrail began with 50 employees at the Wiler, Domodossola and Duisburg locations . It took over five electric mainline locomotives of the Swiss Re 436 series from RM and had five other leased locomotives of the Swiss 482 series for the Duisburg – Wiler service. It also took over the “Cargodrome” in Wiler and Domodossola for reloading between rail and truck, in Wiler with a gantry crane running on rails, in Domodossola with a mobile device. A logistics and storage center with an area of over 3,000 m² is also available in Wiler. The transshipment center in Wiler near Utzenstorf is now closed.

Rental locomotives

Manufacturer	Type	model series	Power system	since	countries	number	owner	holder
Bombardier	TRAXX F140 AC1	BR 185	2 current	2009/2016	DE / CH / AT	2.2	Alpha Trains	Crossrail
Bombardier	TRAXX F140 AC2	BR 185	2 current	2007	DE / CH / AT	4th	Macquarie	Crossrail
Bombardier	TRAXX F140 AC2	BR 185	2 current	2008	DE / CH / AT	12	Beacon Rail	Crossrail
Bombardier	TRAXX F140 AC2	BR 185	2 current	2017	DE / CH / AT	3	Alpha Trains	Crossrail
Bombardier	TRAXX F140 MS	BR 186	4 current	2008-2014	DE / CH / AT / IT	10, 2018 to Cargologic (Kloten CH)	Macquarie	Crossrail
Bombardier	ADtranz 145	BR 145	1 current	2010	DE	1	Alpha Trains	Crossrail

Notes: 1-current = 15 kV ~ 16 2/3 Hertz; 2-current: 15 kV ~ 16.7 Hz and 25 kV ~ 50 Hz; 4-Strom = as before plus 1.5 kV and 3 kV direct current
“since” refers to the year of construction or year of approval, “countries” to the countries for which the locomotives are certified.

Former rolling stock

When the Regionalverkehr Mittelland (RM) became independent, Crossrail received the five locomotives used in freight transport, which corresponded to the SBB type Re 4/4 ^III , and were still procured from the predecessor company Emmental-Burgdorf-Thun-Bahn (EBT). The locomotives were approved for Switzerland and have been retrofitted over the years with ETCS, which is necessary for guiding freight trains via the Lötschberg Base Tunnel (LTB) and Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT). The Re 436 113 had an accident in 2010 and was then parked at SBB's Bellinzona industrial plant before being scrapped in Lugano in October 2017. The four operational locomotives were only rented to Widmer Rail Service (WRS) in 2017 and then sold by the end of the year.

model series		Manufacturer	Construction year	origin	number of pieces		Discarded	Remarks
series	Numbers	Manufacturer	Construction year	origin	total	today	Discarded	Remarks
Electric locomotives
Re 436	111-112	SLM / BBC / MFO / SAAS	1969	RM (2005)	(Ex)0 5	0	2017	at WRS sold
Re 436	113-115	SLM / BBC / MFO / SAAS	1983	RM (2005)	(Ex)0 5	0	2017	at WRS sold
Ub = takeover from outside stock (used vehicle); Um = conversion from our own stock