HHLA’s subsidiary HCCR opens railway connection on its facility at the Port of Hamburg

As of November 2014, Hamburger Container- und Chassis-Reparatur-Gesell­schaft (HCCR), a subsidiary of Hamburger Hafen- und Logistik AG (HHLA), offers a railway connection with a usable siding of 720 metres on its facility at the Port of Hamburg. HCCR’s customers can utilise this option with significantly longer trains in comparison to the previously limited 620 metres, the company said in its press release.

The Managing Director of HCCR, Georg Böttner, explains: “With the new 720-metre usable siding, we will further improve the attractiveness of our services. We can therefore handle the maximum carriage-set length permitted in western Germany. This means that we can now load up to 108 standard containers (TEU) on a single train. Our service has already met with a favourable response. The possibility of transporting more containers on a single train does not only make economic sense for our customers, likewise rail operators also save time and money, since it is no longer necessary to shunt waggons. In any case, they already benefit from the siding’s location on one of the Port of Hamburg’s most important railway tracks leading to the hinterland. Our service is similarly important for the environment. The greater the number of containers operated via HCCR’s terminal nearby facility, the lower the overall volume of transshipments performed by truck. This relieves the often stressed road infrastructure within the port.”