20 years of WoodTainers
posted on 5th Nov 2025 11:17
This year, Innofreight commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the deployment of WoodTainer XXL containers and thus the normal operation of its technology in general.
At the end of July, exactly 20 years have passed since the start of the operation of trains with WoodTainers, when this premiere took place on Czech network, transporting wood chips from the Stora Enso group's sawmills in Ždírec nad Doubravou and Planá u Mariánských Lázní to the paper mill in Štětí (then Mondi Packaging Paper Štětí, today Mondi Štětí).
However, Innofreight developed the WoodTainer XXL in cooperation with the ÖBB/Rail Cargo Group and the logistics company Papierholz Austria for transport to the Sappi paper mills in Gratwein near Graz. In the meantime, it has been used in the Czech Republic through the company Wood & Paper, which Papierholz Austria founded with other partners from the industry for operations outside Austria. Transport to Gratwein started later in 2005, and Innofreight therefore organised an event for its business partners on 24 October 2025 to commemorate this anniversary.
At a joint celebration, the participating companies looked back on the beginnings of the WoodTainer system, which has long since established itself as a European standard. „From the very beginning, the safety of our employees was at the heart of our considerations," recalls Isabella Legat, responsible for the wood industry at Innofreight. Until Innofreight developed the container solution with rotary unloading, there were few suitable and very complex systems on the market for transporting wood chips, which also had to be operated manually by employees.
So an advanced solution was needed that would significantly improve handling and also considerably increase the transported quantities per wagon or train: the WoodTainer. „This site has a history of more than 400 years and thrives on innovation. That’s why we’re celebrating this collaboration, which is all about safety and efficiency to strengthen European industry,” says Wolfgang Fuchs, Head of Pulp Mill and Utilities at Sappi in Gratkorn.
For the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group, it was crucial that systems to be developed are optimally tailored to customer needs. Wolfgang Riedl, RCG Business Unit Manager for, among other things, wood, emphasizes: „Our goal is to make the switch to rail as easy as possible for our customers. Efficient and high-performance rolling stock makes a decisive contribution to this.”
The WoodTainer found its way into other industries For Innofreight owner Peter Wanek-Pusset, the development of the WoodTainer system was also a door opener: „This container was a major innovation at the time, which became established throughout Europe and, in a slightly adapted form, also found its way into other industries.” Its market launch 20 years ago coincided with the parallel development of the first rotary unloader, which has also been used at Sappi since spring 2025 as an electrically powered version.
The first stationary unloading system at Zellstoff Pöls followed as early as 2007. „That was another important moment in our company history, as we subsequently further developed the stationary unloading systems for other industries, for example for voestalpine in Donawitz," explains Isabella Legat. Meanwhile, the demand for biomass in the wood industry continues to rise in order to advance the decarbonization of coal-fired power plants - both at Sappi and, for example, in the Czech Republic and Poland. „Together with our partners, we move 900 to 1,000 block trains of wood chips annually. We currently transport 30 % of our wood volumes by rail, but see potential for 50 %," says Andreas Kogler, Managing Director of Papierholz Austria.
The WoodTainer - robust, proven, and reliable - is now frequently used together with the newly developed 80 ft InnoWaggon. This wagon, manufactured in Trieste and equipped with the innovative InnoBogie, features a lightweight construction, allowing it to transport even more biomass. With four WoodTainer XXL containers per wagon, it achieves a payload increase of 10 to 15 %. „We've never transported as much biomass as this year. The new 80-foot InnoWaggon represents a real quantum leap for us," says Innofreight owner Peter Wanek-Pusset.
This combination of enhanced safety and increased volume has characterized the collaboration between Innofreight, Papierholz Austria, Sappi, and the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group over the past two decades and has also laid the foundation for further innovations. The Smart GigaWood, designed for transporting roundwood and particularly user-friendly due to the deliberate elimination of straps, has been in operation at Sappi in Gratkorn since 2019. Today, it is indispensable in the timber industry in Germany, Sweden, and the Czech Republic.
„By using stanchions, we achieve a payload increase of up to 30 %, thus making a significant contribution to shifting more timber transport to rail,” says Legat. This mission will soon receive additional momentum from the multi-billion-euro Koralm Railway and Semmering Base Tunnel projects: thanks to improved connectivity, higher track capacity, and the ability to increase transport volume by rail. The planned terminal in Peggau, which Innofreight will build together with Alpacem and Intercal, will also play a major role in shifting freight traffic from road to rail - setting new standards both ecologically and economically.
While the WoodTainer XXL containers are still in use in its original form, this year's new product was presented at this anniversary celebration, the non-articulated 80-foot wagons from the new Innoway Trieste plant. The train of these wagons arrived from Ždírec nad Doubravou, from where wood chips have been transported to Gratwein using Innofreight technology for two decades.
Another innovation was the use of CityRail as the carrier on the Czech section of this transport, which took place for the first time on this route with this train, which departed on 22 October 2025. This year, InnoSped took over a 50% stake in Czech railway undertaking CityRail, and this is another step in the plan to use this carrier for transports that are commercially provided directly by the Innofreight group, through the forwarding companies InnoSped or Inno4Wood. This step coincided with this year's significant increase in the prices of ČD Cargo services, making using your own carrier all the more appropriate.