Hamburg Port Consulting (HPC) has put forward operational development design plans for the Budapesti Intermodális Logisztikai Központ (BILK) intermodal terminal.
According to HPC, the assessment involved considerations of a wide range of options, including a study of current terminal capacity (tracks, lift, yard, gate) and a sensitivity analysis of comprehensive planning parameters – such as a reduction in unit dwell times and train turnarounds, as well as changes in modal unit volume splits and traffic types.
In addition, the company studied the effects of faster gate procedures and a reduction of gate peaks using technology solutions such as pre-announcement, optical character recognition (OCR) and self-check-in.
HPC said particular emphasis has been placed on safety issues, as significant increases in annual volumes put stress on current operational processes, resulting in a negative effect on work safety due to limited space availability.
“We see a real need to optimally adapt terminals, BILK among them, to the changing requirements of the railway companies,” said Frank Busse, Associate Partner and Business Development Manager Europe at HPC.
“Growing traffic from the Eurasian region and higher proportions of non-stackable cargo in the continental traffic are leading to new challenges to which the terminal layout and processes must adapt in order to offer competitive services in the long term.”
BILK is one of Hungary’s biggest intermodal logistics hubs, with a total throughput of 230,000 TEU in 2021.
The terminal is also one of the main hubs of Rail Cargo Group for intermodal traffic with regular connections to European ports – such as Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Koper, Piräus, Rijeka, and rail terminals in Neuss, Wels, Wien, and Brno, among others.
BILK mainly handles maritime containers, although the demand for handling trailers and other continental traffic is increasing.
“In asking HPC to carry out this work, we wish to take further advantage of Budapest terminal’s unique location,” said Attila Czöndör, CEO of BILK.
“We have realised the changing demands of our customers and are actively working on solutions together with our partners.”
“We manage maritime, continental and Eurasian traffic at the same time at the terminal and want to ensure that all of this traffic, with its different characteristics, can be handled flexibly, yet punctually and reliably.”
Last year, HPC launched a new project on new connections for freight transport in the Baltic Sea region.
A total of three new connections in cargo transport were established in a bid to build the “Baltic Sea Bridge“ for container transport between Europe and China.
