Even more pulling power for Metrans

The HHLA subsidiary Metrans is investing further in the enhancement of its product quality. The company doesn’t just rely on its own rail terminals, but also increasingly on its own traction fleet. This means that Metrans locomotives are pulling container trains through Europe. Metrans is thus expanding its opportunities for development and making itself an even more autonomous supplier of intermodal services. The delivery of the 40th Bombardier multi-system locomotive completes a series that began with the order of the first Bombardier locomotive in 2014.

The type TRAXX F140MS multi-system locomotives are specially designed for the different supply voltage and train protection systems – 15 kV and 25 kV alternating current and 1.5 kV and 3 kV direct current – in place across Europe, meaning they are suited for transnational European rail transport. Metrans will mainly be using the new locomotives for rail transport between the North Sea ports of Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam and Antwerp, and the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

The handover of the 40th TRAXX locomotive took place at the Metrans container terminal in Prague Uhříněves, and was attended by Martin Horinek, Chief Operating Officer of Metrans, among others. He said, “Metrans’s business model is based on the close dovetailing and optimisation of all processes along the transport chain between seaport and clients in the European hinterland. With more of our own locomotives, we can even better control the transport processes of Metrans. This will allow us to be even more reliable, to be more flexible in response to the requests of our customers and to offer new services.”

Dominik Rohrer, project manager of locomotive construction at Bombardier Transportation underscored the advantages of the multi-system technology: “Together with Metrans and HHLA, we have expanded the radius of operation of TRAXX locomotives to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. On an east-west European corridor, these locomotives can thus cross an exceptional number of country borders.”

Metrans is one of the leading train operators in Europe and is the market leader for container transports in seaport-hinterland traffic with Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The network of HHLA rail subsidiaries comprises 13 inland terminals in five Central and Eastern European countries. In the first six months of 2018 alone, the company carried 13,000 container trains through Europe. Until 2022, HHLA will provide Metrans with € 350 million in investment funds for new terminal facilities, locomotives and for the wagon fleet.