HHLA subsidiary expands rail connections in Europe

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG’s (HHLA) subsidiary Metrans is offering new rail connections between the Baltic Sea, Central Europe and Turkey.

Another terminal in the northern hemisphere, Gdansk, Poland, is now served by Metrans trains. In addition, in the far southeast, already a few kilometres into Asia, the Halkali Terminal close to Istanbul was connected with the Metrans Network.

The complete rail network now stretches from Gdansk, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Rotterdam in northern Europe to Koper, Trieste, Piraeus and Istanbul in the south.

 The new connection with Turkey was made possible by a cooperation with the Turkish logistic provider Omsan Logistics. As an in-house logistics provider of OYAK group, they will support Metrans with their deep market knowledge.

The first train with containers left the Metrans Hub Terminal Dunajska Streda (Slovakia) on the 3rd of September in direction to Istanbul terminal Halkali. Two round trip weekly train connections are planned.

“We are connecting an increasing number of ports with our strategically positioned hub terminals for the transhipment of containers across Europe,” said Peter Kiss, CEO of Metrans-Group.

In Poland, Metrans is closing a missing link on its European network map with a connection to the Baltic Sea. Regular trains have begun running between the Czech Metrans terminal Ostrava and DCT container terminal in Gdansk three times every week in each direction, with a stopover in Dabrowa Gornicza near Katowice.

“We enable our customers in Central and Eastern Europe to get regular connections to the port of Gdansk”, Kiss said.

“This is a welcomed, long awaited connection. The block trains between Gdansk and Ostrava are optimized in length which can reach up to 750 meters. That is increasing capacity of a single train to 112 standard containers and helps to consume less energy per box.”