Transfesa (''Transportes Ferroviarios Especiales S.A.'') is a transport company based in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is a transport and

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

service provider and European intermodal operator. As of 2007 The company has five major terminals in Spain at

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Saragossa Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

and

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

, and ten intermodal (road rail) logistics facilities.

Overview

Transfesa was founded in 1943, early operations were centered around the domestic transport of

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

. During 1952, it received its first freight wagons to be constructed with interchangeable axles, permitting freight movements between Spain and the rest of Europe without the need from transhipment, thus accelerating service speeds and lowering costs. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, international traffic grew based around the carriage of fruit exports to western Europe using company's own ventilated wagons. During the 1960s and 1970s, Transfesa opened numerous branches across Europe, such as in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. In 1972, it expanded into the British market as well. During the 1970s and 1980s, the company found new business in the automotive sector, transporting complete cars by rail to dealerships throughout the continent, as well as parts between manufacturing sites. In the 1990s, Transfesa branched out into ancillary activities such as rolling stock maintenance and terminal management services. In August 2007, the German state-owned railway operator

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

announced that it would acquire a majority stake in Transfesa. During 2008, the takeover was approved by regulators, after which Deutsche Bahn gained a 55.1% of the company in exchange for €135million. Minority shareholders include

Renfe Renfe (, ), officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company. It was created in 2005 upon the split of the former Spanish National Railway Network (RENFE) into the Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias ( ...

and

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

. By 2022, ownership of Transfesa was distributed between Deutsche Bahn Ibérica Holding (70.29%), Renfe (20.35%), treasury stock (9.11%) and minority shareholders (0.24%). During October 2014, it was revealed the Spanish competition authorities were investigating both Transfesa and the Spanish national train operator

after the discovery of evidence indicating a possible collusion agreement and abuse of a dominant position by the latter. During April 2020, Transfesa and

DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway) is a British rail freight company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin ...

commenced a daily express freight connection between the British capital city of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and its terminals in

and

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

. This new service permitted Transfesa to transport vital supplies needed during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

using refrigerated containers that protects perishable supplies. In September 2020, Transfesa launched a new express rail service from the Almussafes rail terminal in Valencia to the Barking rail terminal in the UK, hauling both fruit and vegetable products; the service, which was launched in partnership with the British supermarket retail chain

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

, makes use of British high-speed lines and Spanish rail gauge changing facilities. Around the same time, the company expanded its services to Dourges, France. The company has also sought to expand its provision of refrigerated rail freight services under the ''CoolRail'' brand; a partnership with Euro Pool System has been formed with the goal of running services to destinations across Europe, including

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

, and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Transfesa has also stated its aim to maximise use of parent company Deutsche Bahn's infrastructure in pursuit of its expansion. Freight services departing from Transfesa's Valencia terminal have a transit time of around 48 hours to reach cities such as

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

; UK destinations take 72 hours while Scandinavian and Eastern European countries are typically reached in 96 hours.

Rolling stock

As of 2011, the company's transportation fleet includes over 7,000 railway wagons, over 2,000 swap bodies and over 200 trucks. The company also operates two rail gauge changing facilities on the France/Spain border. During the 2010s and 2020s, the company has been deploying digital apparatus, including

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...

and GPS trackers, across its rolling stock for various purposes, including traceability, serviceability, usage optimisation, and greater data availability.

References

External links

Transfesa Official Site
Deutsche Bahn Companies based in Madrid Railway companies of Spain Transport companies of Spain Logistics companies of Spain Transport companies established in 1943 Spanish companies established in 1943 Railway companies established in 1943 {{Spain-transport-stub