Etihad Rail Freight + AD Ports set up Abu Dhabi-Fujairah service

Etihad Rail Freight and AD Ports Group are launching a direct rail service linking Fujairah Terminals to the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD), according to a statement. The service will carry inbound containers across the UAE’s national rail network to an inland terminal at ICAD. And for the first time, shipping lines and freight forwarders can book cargo directly to ICAD as a final destination, after the site was assigned its own UN LOCODE — moving customs inspection, clearance, and release closer to businesses’ warehouses and factories. Freight capacity wasn’t disclosed.

BACKGROUND- ICAD’s freight terminal has been physically linked to the national rail network since 2022. What’s new here isn’t the connection — it’s that ICAD can now be booked and cleared as a cargo destination in its own right rather than just a stop along the way.

Why it matters: A port outside the Strait of Hormuz only helps if cargo can move efficiently beyond its gates — a constraint we’ve flagged in previous reporting looking at rail as a fallback against a Hormuz closure and why Gulf rail wasn’t ready. Alternative gateways need onward connections to work as effective fallbacks, and the inland connection with ports was the limiting factor. It also fits a broader pattern: Etihad Rail and AD Ports Group agreed on a separate framework in October 2025 to speed customs clearance on the same Fujairah-Khalifa Port corridor — suggesting inland customs integration is becoming a standing feature of the network rather than a one-off.

It’s an improvement regardless of whether the strait opens or stays disrupted. Combining rail transport with inland clearance should reduce handling, shorten final delivery distances, and cut reliance on trucking. “A corridor with the right distances and volumes, where the economics worked on their own terms rather than only under emergency conditions, can retain real and durable business as a secondary route,” former strategy director at Etihad Rail and Dubai-based transport, logistics, and infrastructure expert Urs Mosimann previously told EnterpriseAM.