Tailwind’s Panther Express will offer five services per week each way. Credit: Lidl International.

Tailwind Intermodal, the new rail subsidiary of German supermarket chain Lidl, has launched its first services with a direct connection between Graz, Austria and Koper, Slovenia.

The freight operator is an expansion of Lidl’s existing shipping business Tailwind Shipping Lines and will initially offer the service from the Slovenian port into the Austrian state of Styria five times per week in each direction.

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Tailwind Intermodal’s managing director Christian Steindl said the route was chosen to serve as a connection to Eastern and Southeastern Europe from the port of Koper, where Tailwind Shipping Lines also operates.

He said: “With the direct rail connection between these strategically ideally located cargo centres, we are positioning ourselves as an intermodal service provider for all those who have containers transported between the Mediterranean and Eastern and Southeastern Europe.”

The company has named its connection “Panther Shuttle”, referencing the Styrian coat of arms, and said it has plans to increase the frequency of its services over the next year but has not commented on the possibility of expanding to other routes in the future.

The launch of Tailwind Intermodal continues Lidl’s work on bringing more of its supply chain transportation in-house after the launch of its shipping business in April 2022 to deal with shipping delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Lidl said the expansion of its freight operations would allow it to continue enhancing supply chains between Europe and China, the route served by Tailwind Shipping Lines, with the rail services offering onward container transport to the hinterland.

The company’s new connection to Austria comes as the country’s national rail operator ÖBB carries out modernisation and expansion works for its rail corridors to the Slovenian border, with a recent project aiming to cut travel time to Graz by 25 minutes.