Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG has completed the expansion of the rail terminal at its Container Terminal Burchardkai at the Port of Hamburg.

According to HHLA, two extra tracks and two new rail gantry cranes have been added to the terminal at CTB. The terminal now has 10 tracks, each of which is capable of handling trains measuring up to 740 metres long.

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

The two newly purchased rail gantry cranes were designed by manufacturer Kocks Ardelt Kranbau in close cooperation with HHLA.

The expansion increases the rail terminal’s capacity by approximately 200,000 TEUs to 850,000 TEUs per year. The annual rail throughput at CTB has grown by almost 50% since 2010.

At the same time, the share of rail transport at the Port of Hamburg has increased from 36.5% of the total container volume to 42.8% between 2010 and 2017, making Hamburg the largest rail seaport in Europe.

“The numerous high-frequency rail connections give the Port of Hamburg a clear advantage against other European ports,” said Jens Hansen, executive board member of HHLA. “We believe rail connections will increase considerably from 2020 through the improved transport connections of CTB. And we are already perfectly prepared for this.”

Once the new Waltershofer road and railway bridges are operational, CTB will have two sidings to the Hamburg port railway as well as an additional feeder to the CTB rail terminal due to new shunting switches. The project for the additional tracks is due to be completed in 2020.

HHLA also intends to invest a total of €800 million (US$908 million) by 2022 in its Port Logistics subgroup, earmarking €450 million (US$511 million) for the container segment and €350 million (US$397 million) for the intermodal segment.