At the Port of Sète, lorries take the train
The new rail terminal at the Port of Sète-Frontignan, on France’s Mediterranean coast, was inaugurated on 25 November 2025. Starting in 2026, 22,500 semi-trailers a year will “take the train” aboard the Sète-Calais rail motorway, operated by our subsidiary VIIA, helping to decarbonize long-distance freight transport.
Linking rail, road and sea
Picture the scene: semi-trailers waiting be loaded onto long freight trains using horizontal-transfer technology, while other lorries are being offloaded almost at the same time. This synchronized system is set to expand at the Port of Sète-Frontignan thanks to the new rail terminal inaugurated on 25 November 2025.
With Modalohr1 technology deployed at the terminal operated by VIIA, a subsidiary of Rail Logistics Europe, no cranes are needed to load and unload semi-trailers onto flatcars. The result is faster, more cost-effective freight handling. The same wagons can also carry shipping containers, facilitating the modal shift from road and sea to rail.
30,000 t
of CO2 avoided each year thanks to the Sète – Calais rail motorway
€19.4m
invested in the terminal, including €10 million by VIIA (of which €3 million in government aid)
40,000
Semi-trailers and containers can be loaded each year through this set-up
22,500 fewer trucks on the road by 2026
The new 6-hectare site’s innovative loading/unloading system will strengthen the rail motorway service between the ports of Sète-Frontignan and Calais. In 2026, VIIA—our subsidiary specialized in combined rail/road transport in Europe—expects to transport 22,500 semi-trailers from the Mediterranean to northern Europe, up from 15,000 today. Result: fewer lorries on the road and a 30,000-tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Ultimately, the goal is to transport 40,000 trailers a year on the Sète-Calais route.
Links to Luxembourg and the Atlantic coast
VIIA also operates a rail motorway between Le Boulou, near the Spanish border, and Bettembourg station in Luxembourg. Launched in 2007, this service carries the equivalent of 100,000 lorries a year—that’s around 400 trailers loaded onto freight trains every day.
VIIA continues to develop rail motorways serving the Atlantic coast through its subsidiary Lorry Rail, which began operating a line between Bettembourg and Mouguerre in southwestern France on 16 October 2025.