Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene-Straße

Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene-Straße mbH (DUSS) is a German railway-infrastructure company headquartered in Bodenheim. It was founded in November 1982 by the Deutsche Bundesbahn and specialises in the planning, construction and operation of transshipment terminals that transfer freight between rail and road. Its core business is combined transport: containers, swap bodies and semi-trailers are lifted or rolled between trains and trucks at dedicated yards, allowing long-haul freight to travel by rail while the first and last miles are covered by road. DUSS operates a network of 24 transshipment terminals for container traffic plus one terminal dedicated to the Rollende Landstraße (RoLa), the accompanied combined-transport service in which complete trucks are carried on low-floor rail wagons. Several of its sites are large, whole-train-capable hubs, and the company also holds stakes in further terminals together with partners, including the TriCon Container Terminal at the Port of Nuremberg (with RoLa loading), THG Terminal Heilbronn GmbH and Kombi Terminal Burghausen GmbH. Ownership is closely tied to the German rail system. DB InfraGO AG holds 75% of the company, Deutsche Bahn AG holds 12.5% and Kombiverkehr GmbH & Co. KG holds the remaining 12.5%. This structure reflects DUSS's role as part of the Deutsche Bahn group's infrastructure and combined-transport ecosystem, with Kombiverkehr representing the interests of combined-transport operators. The RoLa terminal at Freiburg is operated by DUSS alone. Since 2001 it has handled up to eleven daily train pairs to Novara in the Alpine transit corridor, operated by RAlpin; this RoLa service is scheduled to be discontinued on 13 December 2025. DUSS therefore sits at the intersection of rail infrastructure, intermodal logistics and German and European freight policy, providing the physical nodes through which much of Germany's combined rail-road freight passes.

Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene-Straße mbH was founded in November 1982 by the Deutsche Bundesbahn, the state railway of West Germany. Its creation reflected the growing importance of combined transport — the movement of freight in containers, swap bodies and trailers that travel by rail for the long haul and by road for collection and delivery. DUSS was set up to provide and manage the physical interface between the two modes: the transshipment terminals where goods are transferred. Over the following decades the company built and operated a network of such terminals across Germany. By the 2020s it operated 24 transshipment terminals for container traffic and one terminal dedicated to the Rollende Landstraße, the accompanied service in which complete trucks are carried on rail wagons. Several of these are large, whole-train-capable yards, and DUSS also participates in further terminals through partnerships, such as the TriCon Container Terminal at the Port of Nuremberg, THG Terminal Heilbronn GmbH and Kombi Terminal Burghausen GmbH. The ownership structure evolved with the German railway system. After the Deutsche Bundesbahn was merged into the newly created Deutsche Bahn AG in the 1990s, DUSS became part of the Deutsche Bahn group. Its shareholders are now DB InfraGO AG with 75%, Deutsche Bahn AG with 12.5% and Kombiverkehr GmbH & Co. KG with 12.5%. DB InfraGO is the group's infrastructure arm, while Kombiverkehr is a long-established combined-transport operator, giving the terminal company both an infrastructure and a market perspective. The Freiburg RoLa terminal has been a notable part of the portfolio. Since 2001 it has handled up to eleven daily train pairs to Novara in Italy as part of Alpine transit, operated by RAlpin. This service is scheduled to be discontinued on 13 December 2025, reflecting changes in the market and in Alpine freight policy. DUSS continues to operate its container terminal network and to plan and build new transshipment capacity as part of Germany's intermodal freight infrastructure.

• DUSS founded by Deutsche Bundesbahn.

• Freiburg RoLa terminal begins up to eleven daily train pairs to Novara, operated by RAlpin.

• Freiburg–Novara RoLa service scheduled to be discontinued.

Operator of Germany's combined rail-road transshipment terminal network within the Deutsche Bahn group.

• Container transshipment terminals

  24 terminals in Germany for transferring container traffic between rail and road.

• Rollende Landstraße (RoLa) terminal

  One terminal, in Freiburg, dedicated to accompanied combined transport of complete trucks.

• Terminal planning and construction

  DUSS plans and builds transshipment terminals as well as operating them.

1. 1Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene-Straße – Wikipedia (German)de.wikipedia.org
2. 2Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene-Straße – Wikidatawikidata.org