Combined Transport Expands Offerings at MegaHub Lehrte

The Kombiverkehr KG is expanding its service offerings through the MegaHub Hannover Lehrte rapid transshipment facility with new connections and additional shipping days on existing routes. Since August 3, 2021, freight forwarders and logistics companies have been able to route their intermodal loading units with three weekly train departures via the MegaHub to the Swedish combined terminal Malmö operated by Mertz.

(Frankfurt/Main) An expansion to four departures per week and direction will be included in the Kombiverkehr schedule on September 6. On the same day, Hamburg-Billwerder and the Port of Kiel will receive their first connections to the operator’s innovative transport network in national and international traffic. Both routes will be served five times a week, with the Schwedenkai and the Ostuferhafen being accessed in Kiel.

Increased Frequencies for Even More Climate-Friendly Transport

In April 2021, Kombiverkehr began integrating the rapid transshipment facility into the intermodal network in collaboration with DB Cargo, starting with five national connections and one international connection. After five months of successful operation of all train connections, frequency increases are now on the horizon. “The experiences since the start of operations have clearly shown that the MegaHub Lehrte perfectly complements and elevates our gateway strategy to a new level. The opportunities to route semi-trailers, swap bodies, and containers across Germany and Europe have significantly increased for our customers in our extensive network,” said Managing Director Alexander Ochs, convinced of the integration of Hannover Lehrte into the service offerings.
“The issues of CO2 pricing and driver shortages alone have once again increased demand for our services in the first half of the year. This has now had a positive impact on the departure density of the trains,” Ochs continued. Four connections will see an even more attractive train offer. Starting September 6, the Frankfurt company will offer five weekly departures in both directions from and to Lübeck CTL (Lehmann Terminal), Munich-Riem, and Verona Interterminal. Duisburg Ruhrort Hafen DUSS will simultaneously be expanded to four departures per week and direction, before a fifth train departure follows in October. The shipping days and timetable can be found in the online timetable information on the Kombiverkehr KG website. Another expansion phase is being prepared for the turn of the year 2021/2022.

Maximum Flexibility in Routing and Intermodal Location Advantage for Hannover

Through the MegaHub Hannover Lehrte as a central hub, all connected terminals can be linked together. The MegaHub Hannover-Lehrte is being funded with 7.8 million euros as part of the federal program “Future of Rail Freight Transport” by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. Enak Ferlemann MdB, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure: “We need to shift more goods from the road to the environmentally friendly rail. Because more combined transport means: fewer truck trips, less congestion, and lower CO2 emissions. I am therefore very pleased with the positive development at the MegaHub in Lehrte, which we want to further support and sustain with our funding.”
The connections are designed so that trains arrive between 8 PM and 6 AM and have only short standing times, allowing loading units to be transshipped particularly quickly. With Kombiverkehr’s new system offering, freight forwarders and logistics companies already have a new variety of accessibility to important economic locations and ports in Europe. The services are continuously bookable. For the economic region in Hannover itself, a European intermodal offering with fast direct connections has been created with the MegaHub connections.
Photo: © Kombiverkehr