The CREAM Project has been designed to respond to the increasing demand for rail-based logistic systems, and the implementation of change in the European railway area, which has been initiated by the European legislation.

Against the benchmarking business models of logistic service providers CREAM will design and validate advanced customer-driven business models for Railway Undertakings and Intermodal Operators. CREAM will analyse the operational and logistic prerequisites for developing, setting up and demonstrating seamless rail freight and intermodal rail/road and rail/short sea/road services on the Trans-European mega-corridor between the Benelux countries and Turkey, including field validation. CREAM is committed to develop business cases, which will be integrated into an innovative corridor-related freight service concept, with respect to:

• Innovative rail-based supply chains including intelligent rail and multimodal operation models
• Quality management system
• Interoperability and border crossing
• Integrated telematic solutions for train control, tracking & tracing of shipments and customer information
• Rail logistics for temperature-controlled cargoes
• New technology for the transport of unaccompanied semi-trailers in intermodal transport

The business cases are due to be demonstrated on a very challenging corridor that incorporates completely new rail infrastructure dedicated to rail freight, congested industrialized and rural areas, Member States, Accession States and Candidate Countries, as well as stakeholders including new entrant railway undertakings and customers from various market segments. All proposed business cases will be field-validated in full-blown demonstrations during the 48 months project period.

Fact Sheet:

25 Partners from 13 Countries

Coordinator	HaCon Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Hannover, Germany
Project Management	HaCon / KombiConsult
Project Manager HaCon	Lars Deiterding
Railway Undertakings / Port-/Ferry Operator / Infrastructure Provider	BDZ, CFR Marfa, Lokomotion, MÁV Cargo, OSE, Keyrail, RCA, DB Schenker, Railion NL (until 12/2007), RTC, TCDD, SZ, MZ
Intermodal Operators / Freight Integrators / Customer	ICA (until 12/2009), Kombiverkehr, TRW (until 04/2009), DB Intermodal, Balnak, Ökombi (since 10/2007), OZV (since 1/2008), Ekol (since 10/2008), IFB (since 05/2009)
Technology Provider	Knorr-Bremse (until 08/2008), HaCon, Eureka (since 09/2008), Voith (since 03/2009)
Consultants / Research / Associations	HaCon, KombiConsult, NTUA, OTB TU Delft, UIC
Duration	01/2007 - 12/2010