In brief: French shipping line CMA CGM has run its first container train to East-West Gate (EWG), an intermodal terminal in Fényeslitke, Hungary, near the Ukrainian border, following Maersk’s earlier launch of depot and dry-port services at the same site.
The 850,000 sq m terminal, which its owner calls Europe’s largest inland intermodal site of its kind, was originally built for Belt and Road rail freight between China and Central/Eastern Europe via Ukraine, where EU standard gauge meets Russian broad gauge; trial operations began in 2022. The war in Ukraine disrupted that corridor, pushing operator EWG Group to court ocean carriers instead. Eastern Hungary’s battery and electromobility industry generates heavy inbound container volumes, while limited regional exports leave carriers managing costly empty equipment — a gap EWG says it can help balance by also drawing in agricultural exporters shifting grain from bulk to containers since the war disrupted Ukraine’s usual routes.
For forwarders and shippers moving goods to or from Central/Eastern Europe and Ukraine, this gives ocean carriers a new inland rail link independent of the stalled China-Ukraine-Europe corridor, worth tracking as more carriers reportedly weigh services there.
Source: RailFreight.com, October 22, 2026.