Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), a subsidiary of Metrans, offers new rail connections between the Baltic Sea, Central Europe and Turkey.
The complete rail network now stretches from Gdansk (Poland), Hamburg (Germany), Bremerhaven (Germany), Wilhelmshaven (Germany) and Rotterdam (Netherlands) in northern Europe to Koper (Slovenia), Trieste (Italy), Piraeus (Greece) and Istanbul (Turkey) in the south of Europe.
“The new relations fit well into the philosophy of our dynamic group. We are connecting an increasing number of ports with our strategically positioned hub terminals for the transhipment of containers across Europe. More relations mean a more attractive service for our customers, operationally as well as in terms of costs,” said Peter Kiss, CEO of Metrans-Group.
It should be noted that the new connection with Turkey was made possible thanks to the company’s cooperation with the Turkish logistics provider Omsan Logistics. The first container train left the Metrans Hub Terminal Dunajska Streda (Slovakia) on 3 September bound for the Istanbul Halkali terminal. Initially, two weekly round-trip train connections are planned.
In Poland, Metrans is closing a missing link in its European network map with a connection to the Baltic Sea. From 5 September 2022, regular trains will connect the Czech Metrans Ostrava terminal Ostrava with the DCT container terminal in Gdańsk. Now Metrans customers’ boxes can cross Poland from south to north three times a week in each direction, with a stopover at Dabrowa Gornicza near Katowice.
“We enable our customers in Central and Eastern Europe to get regular connections to the port of Gdansk”, said Peter Kiss.
“This is a welcomed, long-awaited connection, which brings new opportunities to the customers and the market. As you would expect from Metrans, we are presenting a sustainable innovation: The block trains between Gdansk and Ostrava are optimised 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,” he added.