Deutsche Post subsidiary DHL and German railway company Deutsche Bahn will deploy freight trains linking the new DHL/Lufthansa hub at Leipzig/Halle (LEJ) with Frankfurt/Main (FRA) airport with services commencing in mid-2008, according to Deutsche Post spokesman,Manfred Hauschild.

Th e rail service is vital for the integrator since they secure the continuous overnight flow of shipments between Rhein-Main airport, Europe¡¯s biggest and busiest cargo gateway, and the new intercontinental hub.

A major problem with the service however, is that the trains will run only at a normal velocity because part of the track between FRA and LEJ is not able to accommodate high speed cargo traffic due to technical reasons. Consequently the trains will need as much as fi ve hours for covering the roughly 400 km between the cities.

Originally DHL and Deutsche Bahn had announced fast trains that would take only three hours to link the sites. Now these plans have been postponed until construction work to rebuild parts of the track is concluded. Meanwhile, DHL is steadily increasing the number of flights with 32 dailies currently.

¡°By mid-2008 we plan to be fully operational at Leipzig airport. Th en more than 50 of our own freighters will be based there, mostly B757Fs but also some other freighters,¡± said Hauschild. Th ese aircraft are complemented by half a dozen long-haul MD-11Fs which belong to DHL¡¯s joint venture partner Lufthansa Cargo. They are deployed on routes to Hong Kong, Delhi, Bahrain and Wilmington/Ohio.

Meanwhile the construction work for a hangar is well underway at LEJ airport. Th e building will be capable of accommodating up to seven B757 freighters at the same time. It is expected to be fully operational by the summer 2008, together with the adjacent, massive sorting centre DHL Express has begun to utilise. – Heiner Siegmund