"This strong growth is partly attributable to one-off effects such as the recovery of traffic losses due to the Rhine disruption in 2017 and the acquisition of ERS Railways in June 2018," a press release from HUPAC explained.

Specifically, ERS Railways contributed with some 92k consignments to HUPAC's non-transalpine traffic, which, in total, rose by 98k consignments in 2018.

Transalpine traffic via Switzerland increased by 67k consignments, out of which more or less half was due to the recovery of the volumes lost following the seven weeks-long blockade of the Rhine valley route in August-September 2017.

In 2019 Hupac expects transport demand to stabilise as a result of the economic downturn. "Now is the time to focus on the quality of the services. We must ensure a stable environment on which new growth can be built," Michail Stahlhut, Director, Hupac Intermodal, underlined.