Hamburg Port Completes Rail Terminal Expansion

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) has completed a project to expand the rail facilities at its Container Terminal Burchardkai in the Port of Hamburg.

Two extra tracks and two new rail gantry cranes have been added to the rail terminal at the Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB), which was one of the largest terminals in Europe even before this expansion. The rail terminal now has ten tracks. It previously had eight.

The longest trains permitted (measuring in at 740 metres) can be processed on every track. The second of the new cranes went into operation on 18 January. It is the fourth crane operating on the terminal in total and the final component of the expansion.

CTB Managing Director Andreas Hollmann said: “We have expanded our rail terminal once more to provide our customers with more than just extra capacity. The four rail gantry cranes, which work independently of one another, enable more flexible processing and faster reaction times for rail throughput.”

The expansion increases the rail terminal’s capacity by approx. 200,000 standard containers (TEU) to around 850,000 TEU per year. Since 2010, annual rail throughput at CTB has grown by almost 50 percent.

Simultaneously, the share of rail transport in the total container volume at the Port of Hamburg increased markedly between 2010 and 2017 from 36.5 percent to 42.8 percent. This makes Hamburg the largest rail port in Europe by far.

HHLA also intends to invest in the expansion of its terminal facilities and in the extension of intermodal transport and handling capacities in the future, said a release.