• Increase to ten weekly departures between Karlsruhe/Ludwigshafen and Hamburg with connections to and from the German Baltic Sea ports

•  More flexible utilisation of capacity on the Cologne – Hamburg/Lübeck route

(Frankfurt/Main, 11 January 2016) Kombiverkehr KG, Europe's largest provider of intermodal transport solutions, has seen in the new year by expanding the capacity of its national transport services to and from Hamburg and Germany's Baltic Sea ports. Capacity has been expanded and adapted on the routes to and from Hamburg and Lübeck in order to cater specifically for a further increase in the demand for combined rail and ferry transport services to the countries of Scandinavia. "We have switched to the rail transport operator Green Cargo for our traction services as it provides onward rail connections from Malmö and Trelleborg, both within Sweden and to and from Norway; these are coordinated with ferry arrival times, thus allowing our customers in the forwarding and logistics sector to benefit from reliable end-to-end transport handling. This enables us to boost capacity in northern European transport in line with demand. We expect the year 2016 to bring significant growth in consignment volumes in this transport segment," says Sales Manager Peter Dannewitz. Kombiverkehr KG currently provides around 200 weekly train departures in direct services to and from northern Europe via the German Baltic Sea ports of Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock and over the fixed crossing.

Kombiverkehr will increase the frequency of services from four to five departures a week in each direction between the terminals in Karlsruhe and Ludwigshafen on the one hand and Hamburg-Billwerder on the other. From 12 January, freight forwarders will for the first time have the option of dropping off containers, semi-trailers and swap bodies bound for Karlsruhe and Ludwigshafen in Hamburg on the newly introduced departure day of Tuesday. They can do the same again in the opposite direction a day later on Wednesday, the other new departure day. In both cases, the trains travel to the destination terminals overnight.  After a journey lasting between nine and 13 hours – depending on the route – the loading units are ready for collection early in the morning prior to delivery around the region or for onward transport in Kombiverkehr's rail network. So-called short shuttle trains operate via Hamburg to reach the Baltic Sea ports of Kiel, Lübeck and Rostock on the same day, where numerous ferry services are available to Scandinavia and the Baltic.

More flexible management and thus improved utilisation of existing capacity are the result of a new production concept on the Cologne – Hamburg/Lübeck v.v. route. The two-group train was previously split before the Hamburg-Billwerder terminal. Each wagon group thus reached the scheduled destination terminal in northern Germany separately. Depending on the booking situation, this did not always make the best possible use of space on the train. This will be a thing of the past with effect from the second calendar week, however, as the wagon groups will no longer be separated in future and the whole train will be loaded and unloaded in both terminals. "This innovative system will enable us to make more efficient use of capacity, which will ultimately benefit our customers when booking their consignments," says a confident Peter Dannewitz.

Kombiverkehr, press photo, free for reproduction

Transport services to and from  Hamburg-Billwerder with connections to Scandinavia and the Baltic via the Baltic Sea ports are the focal point of capacity expansion by Kombiverkehr KG in January 2016.

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About Kombiverkehr:
Founded in 1969, as Europe’s number 1 operator in intermodal transport Kombiverkehr Deutsche Gesellschaft für kombinierten Güterverkehr mbH & Co KG develops, organises and markets an international rail network that offers forwarders and transport companies an intelligent combination of the advantages of road, rail and ship. Kombiverkehr provides over 170 train departures with more than 15,000 connections for the cost-effective, secure and environmentally friendly transport of freight across Europe every night. The limited partnership is owned by some 230 national and international forwarders and transport companies as well as DB Mobility Logistics AG. Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, the company shifted a total of 924,694 million truck consignments (1.85 million TEU) from road to rail in 2014, saving the environment approximately one million tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide emissions. In 2014 the 142 full-time equivalent staff achieved sales of 434 million euro.

Contact for more information and picture material:
Kombiverkehr, Corporate Communications and Sales Support Manager, Jan Weiser
Phone +49 69/7 95 05-1 42, fax +49 69/7 95 05-1 49
e-mail jweiser@kombiverkehr.de