Hamburg calls for infrastructure action

“When the new Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan is agreed this year, the forecast growth in freight traffic makes it essential that maintenance and expansion of routes to the seaports is given top priority,” said Ingo Egloff, Port of Hamburg.

He pointed out that to ensure accessibility from the North Sea, a decision by the courts on the implementation of the widening and deepening of the navigation channel on the Lower and Outer Elbe is urgently needed this year.

This is shown by the fact that ultra large containerships made 507 calls in Hamburg in 2014 meaning around 24% more calls by containerships with slot capacities of over 10,000 teu than the previous year.

Mr Egloff stressed the disastrous environmental consequences that shifting cargo traffic from ocean-going ships on to hundreds of trucks would be.

He also said that action is also urgently required on the repeatedly delayed finalisation of the Elbe Concept for inland waterway shipping. Latest reports suggest that this has been shelved until 2017.

“It is unacceptable that inland waterway shipping in our country should operate only on the Rhine and in the West, with the Middle and Upper Elbe remaining neglected and under-developed as a waterway.”

“Due classification of the Elbe and its adjacent river/canal system, as well as the continuation of maintenance and expansion measures, really belong on the agenda if the Elbe ports are to be able to discharge their function as multimodal transhipment points for the national economy,” he added.