The Alainé group is expanding its collaboration with Viia, the SNCF rail motorway subsidiary, by transforming the Calais-Mâcon link into a direct Calais-Lyon service with six weekly rotations, traction provided by DB Cargo France and operations moved to the Lyon-Édouard Herriot inland port instead of the Mâcon terminal. The new structure is the result of gradual growth. Viia opened the Calais-Le Boulou line in 2016 with eight weekly rotations, designed for unaccompanied P400 semi-trailer traffic along the French north-south axis as far as the Spanish border. Since 2019, to meet the needs of Alainé and its subsidiary P.O Scandex, Mâcon has been used as a coupling and uncoupling point on the same Calais-Le Boulou service, making it possible to serve flows towards central-eastern France and northern Europe. As volumes increased, the stop was then given a dedicated train path, leading to the current configuration: a direct Calais-Lyon link that removes the Mâcon stop on the Calais-Le Boulou service and strengthens both corridors at the same time.
The Calais platform, managed by Viia, is structured as a hub between northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Rail-ro-ro services enable combined routing with ferries to Dover and with intra-EU flows, giving the terminal a significant position in France-UK traffic and on the North Sea to Franco-Spanish border axis. Traction for the Calais-Lyon trains, as on the Calais-Le Boulou route, is entrusted to DB Cargo France. For Alainé, a major carrier in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, the enhanced service forms part of a strategy focused on rail-road multimodal specialisation and decarbonisation, supported by investment in fleets compatible with B100 fuel and in Breeam-certified warehouses. The group presents itself as an integrated transport and logistics operator, with a forwarding division geared towards rail-road combined transport and maritime cabotage for European industrial customers.
A separate strand of Alainé’s expansion concerns P.O Scandex, an operator based in Reventin-Vaugris, in Isère, specialising in flows between France, northern Europe and Scandinavia, with transport and fourth-party integrated logistics activities. The operation, carried out in 2023, represents the consolidation of Alainé’s pan-European network towards Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia and central Europe. P.O Scandex has had an entirely P400 semi-trailer fleet since 2021, which is integrated into the Alainé group’s portfolio of more than 700 P400 semi-trailers dedicated to multimodal transport. This scale is consistent with the decision to concentrate volumes on rail motorways such as Calais-Lyon and Calais-Le Boulou. P.O Scandex’s northern European specialisation makes the Calais terminal strategic, as it provides links with UK terminals and ro-ro flows to and from northern Europe, now benefiting from the direct rail connection with Lyon and south-eastern France.
The use of Alainé’s P400 semi-trailers is not limited to the Calais-Lyon/Le Boulou axis. The group also loads its units on Novatrans services from Dourges to Lyon and Miramas, other unaccompanied combined transport corridors able to serve the Lyon basin and the Mediterranean area of Provence. In this way, Alainé positions itself as a major shipper across several combined transport operators, Viia and Novatrans, with the ability to optimise the allocation of its P400 fleet across different French multimodal axes according to available capacity, reliability and costs.
Antonio Illariuzzi
