The East-West Gate terminal has been opened in Hungary
The East-West Gate terminal has been opened in Hungary. The terminal was planned as an alternative to Małaszewicze dry port on the New Silk Road. Currently, the facility will mainly handle the export of Ukrainian grain.
The East-West Gate terminal has been opened in Fényeslitke in eastern Hungary. According to the original plans, the facility was to be a “dry port” for intermodal transport between the European Union and China, carrying out reloading of containers between warehouses with a gauge of 1520 and 1435 mm. The terminal has connections with the Ukrainian railway network. Currently, however, due to the military operations in Ukraine, it cannot play the planned role of an alternative to Małaszewicze.
This does not mean, however, that the new facility will be empty. As said during the inauguration of the terminal, Péter Szijjártó, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, East-West Gate will support the export of Ukrainian grain and oil. EEC currently has the capacity to tranship 800 tons of grain and 450 cubic meters. sunflower oil per hour. From Fényeslitke, the grain will be transported to ports on the northern Adriatic.
The Hungarian terminal is a modern facility. Remote-controlled cranes using 5G connectivity and digital twin technology were installed in it. The terminal has 5 wide tracks and 5 standard gauge tracks, three tracks for RMG cranes and is adapted to reloading containers, semi-trailers and tank containers. The facility was adapted to handle trains with a length of 740 m. A warehouse with an area of 15 thousand square meters was built next to the terminal. sqm There are also investment areas with an area of 140 ha.
Construction of the terminal EUR 73 million, of which EUR 8.2 million was the financial support of the Hungarian government. The annual reloading capacity of the terminal currently amounts to 300 thousand. TEU. The Hungarians announced that in the longer term these possibilities would be increased to 1 million TEU. However, it is not known if and when these plans will be implemented.