A project is taking shape to launch a bi-modal sea-rail service linking North Africa and Northern Europe, via Marseille, France.

It makes provision for ships operating from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco to dock in Marseille, where non-accompanied semi-trailers and containers would be handled at a railfreight terminal located close to the quayside and transferred directly onto rail wagons.

Trains would leave the port of Marseille for Avignon, feeding into an existing rail-motorway service operated by Transport et Logistique Partenaires (SNCF Geodis) subsidiary, Lorry Rail, between Perpignan and Bettembourg, in Luxembourg.

From Luxembourg, freight would be forwarded on to markets in the UK, elsewhere in northern Europe and also Scandinavia, with fruit and vegetables from North Africa and Morocco in particular, being key north-bound cargos.

Partners in the project include intermodal freight transport lobby group, the Cercle de l’Optimodalité en Europe, the Marseille Port Authority, LD Lines, SNCF Geodis and investment fund Opticapital.

CMA-CGM has expressed interest along with Luxembourg Railways, whose combined transport hub in Bettembourg is set to undergo a significant increase in capacity by 2015.

A spokesman for the project said: “The service we are proposing will be cheaper, quicker and safer than road transport and many trucks will be taken off heavily congested highways. The first trains, operating once daily, initially, could enter service during 2013.”