New Hamburg to Berlin inland water transport route opened

The line operated by the Berlin Hafen-und Lagerhaus AG in cooperation with Konrad Zippel Spediteur GmbH from Hamburg will now transport containers every week from City-GVZ Berlin Westhafen to the Hamburg container terminals and vice versa.

The Berlin waterway connection was developed in the scope of the Deutsche Einheit No. 17 traffic project. It is now able to handle transport from Berlin to Hamburg by ship through the Spree River, the Havelkanal, the Elbe-Havel-Kanal, the Mittellandkanal and the Elbe-Seitenkanal. The Middle-Elbe is navigable when the water level permits, but there are still some navigation restrictions due to discontinued maintenance measures. At Dömitz, the water level fell below 80 cm in the summer of 2008.

Container traffic, which is especially important for the Port of Hamburg, is increasingly being carried out in both directions by the more environmentally friendly ships. The number of containers transported within the Hamburg port hinterland traffic rose by 29% in 2008 and has now reached 119,000 teu. Today, 16 container shipping lines operate between Hamburg and inland ports in northern and eastern Germany every week.