Feature, Freight News, Rail, Sea

IPS makes tracks for Ireland

[ March 25, 2026   //   John Saunders ]

Over the years a number of plans have been suggested to build a rail tunnel cross the Irish Sea, none of which have come anywhere near to fruition, but in sense Dublin based agent IPS has made a train service to Ireland a reality. It is offering a weekly LCL container departure from China to its depot in Swords, north of Dublin.

Its agent in China collects goods from all over the country, forwards them to Xian where they are consolidated into a box which is then transported by way of Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarussia, Poland and Duisburg, Germany from where it moves by road to Rotterdam and then by short-sea shipping all the way to Ireland.

“It’s the only service in Ireland like it,” explains business development for China rail, Peter Rossiter. “It’s sealed in Xian and it’s unsealed in Swords, so it’s a CFS to CFS service.

“IPS also handles its own deliveries and clearance, giving complete control. It is also possible to track the progress of the container as it travels thousands of miles across Asia to western Europe.

 While some other LCL rail options are available, these rely on unstuffing the container in Germany, which adds cost, time and risk, he argues.

Journey time for the rail service from China to Ireland is around 30 days, which makes it about twice as quick as current ocean schedules, while cost is much less than airfreight, the only other alternative.

Rail costs around twice the ocean rate, but there are many Irish importers willing to pay the premium for the extra speed, says Rossiter.

Ocean services are currently at a low ebb both in terms of their speed and dependability, he adds, and he is confident that the rail service can hold its own. “We were running the service before the current shipping disruption,“ he points out, adding that it would still be able to offer a smoother, faster option even if shipping services fully recover.

Rossiter has been running the service for IPS, since joining the company from XPO, where he was involved in the extensive movement of PPE by rail from the Far East during the covid pandemic. In fact, Rossiter pretty much started the rail service for IPS when he joined the company and today manages it with a small team.

The rail service operates inbound only into Ireland, though IPS can offer FCL service by rail in the other direction, if requested. It can also offer ocean and airfreight too.

Into Ireland, commodities carried can be anything and everything, but include packaging material, lighting equipment, a lot of fashion goods and e-commerce shipments of all kinds.

There could be scope to expand the rail service, perhaps by increasing the frequency – two consolidations a week have already operated at busy times. It could possibly be extended to include other origin points such as Vietnam where viable connections exist and attractive journey times can be offered, but for the meantime it will continue doing what it does best, linking China to Ireland.