Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) has completed the expansion of the rail terminal at its Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA) significantly earlier than planned. Following the construction period, regular operations will resume as early as 1 August 2016, which is two months sooner than originally calculated. The CTA's rail terminal now has nine tracks, instead of the previous seven. The expansion will increase the terminal's capacity by 140,000 standard containers (TEU) to 930,000 TEU per year.
Dr. Stefan Behn, a member of the Executive Board of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik, emphasises the significance of the rail terminal expansion: "The expansion of the rail terminal will enable us to ensure the efficiency of the state-of-the-art HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder. It means that we are sufficiently prepared for a continuing shift in volume towards rail transport. We are strengthening the Port of Hamburg as a rail port."
Photo: Expansion of the largest container rail terminal completed.
Source: HHLA / Thies Rätzke
Oliver Dux, Managing Director of the Container Terminal Altenwerder, states: "Our customers will now benefit two months earlier than planned from the completion of the construction work and the return to regular operations."
Dr. Bernd Pahnke, Vice President Port Development DB Cargo, highlights: "We have been working with six other companies to optimise operations at the Port of Hamburg since January 2016. With the optimisations we are significantly increasing the competitiveness of the location. We were able to effectively support the expansion of the CTA rail terminal during the construction period with a performance rate of over 95%. We will benefit from the expansion too, because there is a further shift towards rail transport."
Since 2010, annual container throughput at the CTA rail terminal has risen by almost 20% to 769,000 TEU in 2015. This means that, once again, the CTA's rail terminal had the highest throughput of any container rail terminal in Germany. The share of total container volume by rail has continued to grow in recent years.
The total area of the CTA's rail terminal has not been affected by the expansion; the two additional tracks were built on the existing area. This increases the facility's efficient use of space, which is already high. The distance between the tracks is now narrower. This means that checking the container data will no longer be done, as before, by terminal staff driving between the trains in vehicles known as "Checkmobiles". So, a "train gate" had to be built. This train gate automatically records the container data when trains enter the terminal. The automatic recording is quicker than the manual recording, which means that handling operations can start sooner. And without the diesel-powered checkmobile, CO2 emissions can be reduced.
Oliver Dux: "I am particularly pleased that we can now handle rail containers at the CTA without emitting the greenhouse gas CO2."
The expansion of the rail terminal began early April. After the completion of the construction work, regular operations will resume on 1 August 2016. The total cost of the construction was approximately € 10 million.
For more information:
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA)
Karl Olaf Petters
Phone: +49 (0)40 3088-3521