Construction of Europe's biggest railway combi terminal begins in Hungary
The construction of the largest and most modern railway intermodal combi terminal in Europe has begun at the gates of the European Union in Fényeslitke, near the Hungarian-Ukrainian border, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.
Encompassing some 125 hectares, the East-West Gate Terminal, located at a key strategic point in the economic corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative, is expected to be handed over in the first quarter of 2022. The construction of the substructure of the terminal and the normal railway connection is already in progress.
The East-West Gate (EWG) will be the continent’s first land-based intermodal combi terminal based on green technology using its own 5G network. The theoretical capacity of the terminal is 1 million TEU per year. The terminal, as the western gateway to the "New Silk Road", offers a faster alternative route to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and Germany for freight traffic from Asia than the current land and maritime routes, the press release notes.
The EWG, which is being built at the meeting point of the Russian wide-gauge and the European narrow-gauge railways in Hungary, is also a new, high-capacity opportunity for the export traffic to Asia from Western Europe. In addition, it may also have an important role in the better utilization of the Trans-Siberian Railway Network which has undergone significant improvements in recent years.
The trial operation of the facility is scheduled to begin in January 2022, while its final handover is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022. The EUR 61 million investment is financed entirely from private sources. The Hungarian Government has provided EUR 8.2 million to EWG as job creation subsidy. There will be built five wide-gauge and five narrow-gauge, 850 m long craneable tracks at the EWG terminal, therefore it will be possible to serve four 740 m long trains at the same time.
According to the plans, the facility will be powered by green technology, in line with the EU's rail and climate strategy. A high-performance solar park as well as a heat pump system will provide power, and only electric terminal tractors and e-cars will be used in the terminal area.
The terminal will provide a full range of logistics services and when the operation starts, offering customers 15,000 sqm of leasable warehouse space. On the available unbuilt areas, an additional 500,000 sqm of warehouse, assembly, or production space can be established if required.
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