A new road-to-rail transshipment terminal was opened in Cottbus, roughly 35 kilometres from Germany’s border with Poland. The new hub should provide shippers in the Lusatia area with a valid option to choose rail freight for their services, Deutsche Bahn (DB) said.
The newly inaugurated facility is located in the combined heat and power plant in Cottbus. It will replace the older terminal, which made way for the new DB depot. “The expansion of the Cottbus transport hub plays a key role in the economic development of Lusatia”, said Dietmar Woidke, Minister-President of the State of Brandenburg.
Strategic location
Cottbus is strategically located for rail freight to be developed, and the new hub might help to boost it. The German city is connected to lines leading to three different border crossings to Poland: Forst-Zasieki, Guben-Gubin and Frankfurt Oder-Kunowice. Although, it needs to be said, rail freight is far from being the protagonist for the first two, which are the closest to Cottbus.
The transshipment terminal in Cottbus will have a stabling track for 740-metre-long trains, which is a first for the city. “Additional tracks were laid at the new location near the combined heat and power plant. This will enable trains to be shunted and parked here in the future”, DB said. The new hub also comes with a storage area which “was not available at the previous location” and access for large trucks, the company added.