Hannover Lehrte MegaHub expands geography of intermodal services
The MegaHub terminal in Hannover Lehrte, the German most innovative rail transhipment facility, has improved its network of intermodal services. This became possible owing to the new connections of Kombiverkehr that link the railway hub with two more ports and two more countries.
In less than half a year after handling the first container trains, Hannover Lehrte MegaHub has got the new connections. The facility, which is distinguished by its automation of handling processes, became linked with the Swedish CT terminal in the Swedish city of Malmö (via Denmark) by three weekly trains since early August. A month ago, Kombiverkehr, the German intermodal operator that is focused on increasing the MegaHub’s role at its network, added the fourth weekly service.
The two other new routes also provide reliable intermodal service from Hanover in the northbound direction but within Germany. They link the MegaHub with two ports, Hamburg and Kiel. Both connections are carried out five times a week. As a result, the intermodal network of the Hannover Lehrte MegaHub almost doubled from five train routes including one international to eight routes.
Intensified traffic
Kombiverkehr was the first intermodal operator that, in partnership with DB Cargo, started to dispatch the first freight trains to the Hanover Lehrte MegaHub. The reloading complex handled them in April of the current year. Among the initial connections were those to/from Lubeck (Lehmann Terminal), Munich (München-Riem), Duisburg (Duisburg Ruhrort Hafen DUSS) and Verona (Verona Interterminal). All of them were launched with a frequency of three trains per week. Starting from 6 September, the number of weekly connections was increased to four. As for the Duisburg service, Kombiverkehr intends to launch the fifth weekly service. The German company also considers some plans for adding more trains on the mentioned routes during the next year.