Logistics service provider Horst Pöppel Spedition is building a new multi-user logistics facility at bayernhafen Regensburg. A key focus of the construction project will be sustainability, with the logistics facility achieving ‘Gold’ certification status from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB). The first phase will see the construction of a 15,000 square metre facility with offices and communal areas.

The facility will offer industrial and commercial customers a wide range of tailored logistics solutions, including high-bay and block storage. In terms of sustainability, highlights include an environmentally friendly thermal pump heating system and photovoltaic panels covering the entire roof surface to meet 100% of the electricity requirements. Pöppel also plans to install ‘green walls’ to help improve air quality and promote biodiversity.

“We have been actively pursuing quality for more than 50 years. Innovation and modernity will lead us into a secure future,” says Herbert Rückerl, General Manager of Horst Pöppel Spedition GmbH & Co. KG, “Our new building project sends a clear message about the future direction and development of our company in these difficult economic times. Ultimately, we want to create forward-looking prospects for our current and potential employees in a state-of-the-art workplace”.

The logistics facility will be built on an approximately 24,000 square metre site on Budapester Straße in Westhafen. The new building will increase the covered storage area managed by Pöppel at bayernhafen Regensburg to around 50,000 square metres. The logistics service provider, which is active throughout Europe and supplies the most important logistics centres of the food retail sector throughout Germany, recently opened a new multi-user warehouse in Äußere Wiener Straße. This new investment underlines the key role played by bayernhafen Regensburg and its infrastructure.

Project details:
• 1^st construction phase: 15,000 square metres of usable floor area
• Start of construction 12/2023
• Completion scheduled for 10/2024
• 2^nd construction phase planned for 2026/2027

Source: Horst Pöppel Spedition

Regensburg, 30.03.2023 – German Bundestag MP Dr Carolin Wagner (SPD) took to the heights for her political port internship at bayernhafen Regensburg on 22 March 2023. During her immersive behind-the-scenes look at Bavaria’s leading inland port, Dr Wagner gained hands-on experience of what the port does to ensure that the people and companies in the region are supplied with the goods they need in the daily lives. At her side throughout the day was Carsten Conrad, the Branch Manager of bayernhafen Regensburg, who drew on examples of daily operations to highlight the specific opportunities and challenges facing the future of the port as it undergoes digital transformation and transitions to cleaner modes of transport and energy.

“bayernhafen is of great importance to the region as a whole. The opportunities offered by the potential transport of green hydrogen in particular demonstrate the key role bayernhafen will also play in the transformation process,” said Dr Carolin Wagner.

The first stop in her internship was the Trailerport operated by bayernhafen, which, in addition to containers, mainly handles semi-trailers and swap bodies. Semi-trailers and swap bodies are particularly used for transporting freight on domestic German and European routes and offer enormous potential for accelerating the modal shift from road to rail. Dr Wagner used a reach stacker to unload semi-trailers from the train and got first-hand experience of the shunting process with the aid of a road/rail Unimog.

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Video statement by Dr Carolin Wagner on her port internship

Another highlight of the internship was when she got behind the controls of a state-of-the-art, electric gantry crane to move containers in the trimodal container terminal. The terminal is operated by CTR Container Terminal Regensburg GmbH, which is a member of the IGS Logistics Group. Thanks to the expansion work completed in 2022, which also involved establishing direct access to the port basin, inland barges are now also integrated into the terminal, making it the only trimodal container terminal in eastern Bavaria. The steep climb up the gantry crane was rewarded with a fantastic view of Regensburg in the glorious spring weather.

Dr Wagner also reached lofty heights when she ascended Port Crane 20, where her bird’s-eye view of bulk-goods handling operations provided a clear illustration of how the port’s functions integrate seamlessly with each other.

Also high on the agenda were the positive effect on employment and the nurturing of young talent. In the maintenance workshop, Dr Wagner talked to the supervisors to find out about training opportunities and the wide range of jobs offered at the port. bayernhafen trains not only tradespeople, such as electricians and industrial mechanics, but also employees engaged in planning and administration, such as technical draughtspeople, IT specialists, commercial clerks and real estate managers.

“I am really pleased that we could give Dr Wagner an in-depth insight into what makes bayernhafen Regensburg the freight hub for the whole of eastern Bavaria. Dr Wagner was able to gain first-hand experience of what the port and, above all, the many dedicated people who work here do every day to not only ensure that the people and companies in the region are supplied with the goods they need, but also to drive the transition towards climate-friendly freight transport. Thank you so much for the interesting discussions and your hands-on commitment,” said Carsten Conrad, summing up the internship.

The port internship is a multiplier programme supported by the Federal Association of Public Inland Ports (BÖB), of which bayernhafen is a member. The programme enables elected public officials to gain first-hand experience of the work that inland ports perform and the important role they play. bayernhafen comprises six locations: Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau.

Container terminal at bayernhafen Regensburg significantly expanded

Regensburg, 13 March 2023 – bayernhafen brings together a diverse range of goods and delivers the right infrastructure to meet the challenge of shifting long-distance traffic from the road networks to the two environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail. In 2022, bayernhafen moved almost precisely 9 million tonnes of goods by rail and inland waterway via its six locations of Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau – a minimal decrease of 1.8% on the previous year. This corresponds to around 520,000 fewer truck journeys.

In 2022, 2.57 million tonnes of goods were moved by inland waterway and rail at bayernhafen REGENSBURG, amounting to around 92.3% of the volume handled in the previous year.

In 2022, the volume of goods handled by rail at bayernhafen Regensburg was 1.489 million tonnes, 0.4% above the previous year’s level. Regensburg, the leading port in all of Bavaria in the handling of goods by inland waterway, moved 1.083 million tonnes by barge, 16.9% less than in the previous year. Clearly noticeable was the reduction in agricultural goods such as wheat, one of the main commodities transported by barge in Regensburg, as a result of below-average crop yields. There was also a lack of freight capacity because, firstly, less cargo could be transported by river due to prolonged periods of extremely low water and, secondly, shipping capacity was tied up with coal transports on the Rhine and grain transports from Ukraine on the Danube.

There was marked growth in combined transport, which increased 5.7% on the previous year, achieving throughput of 104,734 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit). In addition to containers for seaport-hinterland traffic, this includes swap bodies and semi-trailers for continental cargo and freight transport.

“Despite the challenges, however, we are seeing considerable interest and a fundamental willingness to expedite the change to inland waterway and rail for transport, not only among our customers but also among companies in Bavaria. To ensure that bayernhafen remains the first port of call, we must continue to invest in our infrastructure, says bayernhafen’s Chief Executive Officer, Joachim Zimmermann.

Reliable supply of goods to the region

In addition to agricultural goods, metal products, ores and building materials are transported by inland waterway from Regensburg. There was a ‘revival’ in 2022 in the handling of coal. High-value heavy-lift cargo such as transformers and wind turbines were also moved by barge. In 2022, more than 100 cable reels were transported to Regensburg via inland waterway and handled and stored by a tracked crane operated by the heavy-lift specialist, Schmidbauer. The cable reels are to be used for transmission system operator TenneT’s SuedOstLink project, which will supply Bavaria with electricity from wind energy generated in the north and east of Germany from 2027 onwards. Rail freight chiefly comprised containers, fuels and construction materials. The supply of heating oil for households and fuels for service stations runs via the VARO tank farm in bayernhafen Regensburg.

First trimodal container terminal in East Bavaria

The expansion of the container terminal at bayernhafen Regensburg has given combined transport a significant boost. The direct connection of the former bi-modal CT terminal (road-rail) to the port basin in the course of the expansion means that inland vessels can now also be directly integrated. This makes bayernhafen Regensburg the only port in the East Bavaria region to have a trimodal container terminal. In addition, a modern, electrically operated container gantry crane was installed. This has increased the handling capacity of the facility operated by CTR Container Terminal Regensburg GmbH, a member of the IGS Logistics Group, which had reached the limits of its capacity, from 128,000 TEU to 200,000 TEU. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV).

The investment for the entire project amounts to around €26 million. It also includes the construction of a dispatch centre and the addition of two more handling tracks. The road connections were also improved, enabling a more favourable routing of traffic flows. In addition, the check-in area for truck handling was expanded and processes optimised. These measures significantly reduce the load on the access roads. The redevelopment of the area was accomplished by the departure of another company operating from the port with no need to consume additional port land. The developer is KT-Infrastrukturgesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture between IGS and bayernhafen. An efficient logistics infrastructure is indispensable for the highly export-oriented economy in Regensburg and the surrounding region. The container terminal in Regensburg is connected to the North Sea ports in Hamburg and Bremerhaven. bayernhafen Regensburg has a dedicated terminal for the handling of semi-trailers and swap bodies, the Trailer Port.

Investment in infrastructure and projects in 2023

In 2022, bayernhafen continued the high level of investment it had made over the previous years, investing around €3.5 million in Regensburg in the redevelopment of its commercial sites and port infrastructure. A further investment of €10 million is earmarked for 2023. The planned projects include the installation of centralised heating and energy provision for bayernhafen’s office and operations buildings in Linzer Straße. “Following last year’s completion of the flood protection scheme in the waterfront area between the Royal Villa and the Westhafen, another focus is the landscaping of the waterside area connecting the city to the port site, says Carsten Conrad, the Branch Manager of bayernhafen Regensburg. The plan is to continue the re-development of the ‘Danube Promenade’ between Österreicherstadel and Babostraße, to upgrade the western section of the Danube embankment for passenger ships and to optimise the eastern section for cargo handling.

This combination of land and infrastructure makes bayernhafen Regensburg a strong anchor point and a major hub for the exchange of goods for the East Bavarian economy. The key prerequisite for this is the clear demarcation between port and residential areas to ensure good neighbourhood relations. “We need protection for our infrastructure. We act as the backbone for the supply of goods to society and industry. This function should not be constrained or even harmed. From urban residential development to conversion for cultural use, there are numerous issues on our agenda that we firmly oppose,” says Joachim Zimmermann.

bayernhafen has asked a series of relevant questions about the technical feasibility study commissioned by the City of Regensburg on the conversion of the Municipal Warehouse into a creative quarter, but we have to date not received any answers. The Municipal Warehouse is located on land owned by Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG and is situated directly in the active port operation area with surrounding use of the existing infrastructure on both the rail and water sides. In addition, zoning plan procedures are ongoing for the west port / oil port with the aim of achieving legal clarity and planning reliability out of a cluster of historically conflicting interests – for the benefit of both the customers of the port and for its neighbours.

After a construction period lasting around two and a half years, the flood protection work along the riverbank between the Royal Villa and Linzer Strasse / Westhafen was finally completed. In November, the Minister of the Environment for Bavaria, Thorsten Glauber, travelled to Regensburg for the inauguration ceremony. Covering an area of around 80 hectares, the flood protection system will provide greater protection for a large number of businesses and around 5,000 residents in the neighbouring communities. The flood protection system will also provide greater safety for companies located on the Danube embankment and in the Westhafen port.

A sheet pile retaining wall was installed over a length of around 900 metres. Depending on the terrain, the wall is between 1.50 and 2.50 metres high and penetrates to a depth of up to eight metres. At passage points, flood protection is provided by mobile elements. The project is being implemented by the Free State of Bavaria, represented by Regensburg Water Management Authority (WWA). The total cost of the approximately € 10 million project will be shared by the Free State of Bavaria and the City of Regensburg. The land required for the construction of the flood protection system was made available by bayernhafen as the owner of the land, and preparatory construction work was carried out in advance.

After completion of the flood protection system, the next step is to redevelop the riverbank area between Österreicherstadel and Babostraße. bayernhafen and the City of Regensburg are working together to continue the attractive redevelopment of the ‘Danube promenade’ from the western part of the passenger ship docking area to Babostrasse. The riverbank path was opened up to the public following the development of the current river cruise ship pier on the Danube embankment. Bicycle and pedestrian traffic is also permitted on the riverbank path and requires mutual consideration from all sides. The riverside path, originally a purely commercial path used by the port, has only been in existence since the mid-1990s. The entire Danube embankment was used by ships and trains right up until the early 1990s. There are also plans to build a children’s playground on the Danube embankment. The land required to do so has been provided to the City by bayernhafen.

More information on flood protection

Section Q – Ostenvorstadt/Westhafen| flood protection Regensburg (bayern.de).

Regensburg, 17 March 2021 – bayernhafen brings together a diverse range of goods and delivers the right infrastructure to meet the challenge of shifting long-distance traffic from the road networks to the two environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail. In 2021, bayernhafen moved a total of 9.15 million tonnes of cargo and freight by inland waterway and rail at its six locations of Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Roth, Regensburg and Passau – a 4.6% increase on the previous year. This corresponds to around 535,000 fewer truck journeys.

In 2021, 2.79 million tonnes of goods were moved by inland waterway and rail at bayernhafen Regensburg, amounting to around 95% of the volume handled in the previous year.

2021 million tonnes of goods were moved by rail in 2021, an increase of 8,6% on the previous year. Inland waterway handling stood at 1.303 million tonnes in Regensburg, the leading port in the whole of Bavaria for water-borne cargo & freight transport. This is 16.1% less than in the previous year and was primarily due to the fact that the good water levels on the Danube in comparison to previous years meant that there was very little need for lightering services (transferring cargo from barge to barge) for inter-regional ship transport at the two Danube ports of Regensburg and Passau.

There was marked growth in Combined Transport, which increased 20.6% on the previous year. In 2021, throughput amounted to 99,047 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit). In addition to containers for seaport-hinterland traffic, a rise was recorded in swap bodies and semi-trailers for continental cargo and freight transport – a segment with further potential for growth. The expansion of the container terminal will provide a further boost to Combined Transport. The transport of semi-trailers and swap bodies has its own terminal, the Trailer Port.

The lion’s share of the shipping tonnage was made up of agricultural products, followed by metal products, ores and construction materials. Additionally, high-value heavy-lift goods, such as transformers, were also loaded onto barge at Regensburg to begin their journeys to markets around the world.

Rail freight in 2019 chiefly comprised containers and construction materials. For instance, the supply of heating oil for households and fuels for service stations runs via the VARO tank farm in bayernhafen Regensburg.

“At each of the regions in which we operate we act as a hub for the import and export of goods and are a driver of the regional economy. Our inland ports and the infrastructure they provide ensure the reliable supply of goods to the region as well as the shift to the more environmentally friendly transport modes of inland waterway and rail,” says Joachim Zimmermann, the Chief Executive Officer of bayernhafen. “This requires investment in trimodal port infrastructure and the concentration of logistics companies at the ports. That is why we must emphatically reject the idea of restricting functioning port land through changes of use in the surrounding areas, or using port land for other purposes on a larger scale. In the spirit of mutual consideration, any existing restrictions need to be minimized.”

It is currently not possible for bayernhafen to estimate the extent of the impact the war in Ukraine will have on the economy and hence on the logistics sector and international supply chains, whether on container traffic, agricultural produce or the supply of raw material for industry.

A hub in the transition to cleaner energy

Since January 2022 cable reels are being transported to Regensburg via inland waterway to be used for the SuedOstLink project, which will supply Bavaria with electricity from wind energy generated in the north and east of Germany. The reels, which were produced near Paris, each hold around 1.75 km of underground cable and weigh up to 80 tonnes. A tracked crane operated by the bayernhafen-based crane specialist, Schmidbauer, offloads the reels at the heavy-lift handling quay. The project is being overseen in Bavaria by the transmission system operator, TenneT. It was possible to store the cable reels in at bayernhafen Regensburg thanks to the regeneration of an existing logistics site.

This is a timely example of how bayernhafen, in its role as site architect, manages its commercial sites through the recycling of existing land rather than the consumption of new land. “Only through the re-purposing of existing land and the consolidation of vacated logistics sites can large sites still be allocated to special logistics projects,” says Andrea Betz, Head of Real Estate Business at bayernhafen Regensburg.

With an eye on the transition to cleaner transport and energy, Stefan Ring, Head of Technology and Operations at bayernhafen Regensburg adds: “When we purchase new vehicles and machines, we always strive to source them on the basis of the latest powertrain technologies, the best emissions standards, and the highest energy efficiency.” For example, since 2021, the port masters uses electric vehicles to drive around the port and the charging infrastructure for plug-in-hybrid and electric vehicles is being expanded.

In 2021, bayernhafen continued the high level of investment it had made over the previous years, investing around € 2.4 million in Regensburg in the redevelopment of its commercial sites and port infrastructure. The investment earmarked for 2022 will reach the level of the previous years.

Boost for biodiversity through eco-account

bayernhafen maintains an eco-account for further construction developments. This account enables bayernhafen to implement the requisite biodiversity offsetting measures in advance and maintain a reserve for future use. The areas are created in sections at a dedicated site of around 16 ha located between Äußere Wiener Straße and the southern bank of the Danube.

Renaturation measures are carried out on suitable areas, such as through the transformation of land previously used for agriculture into alluvial woodland and extensive grassland areas. In future planning permission procedures, eco-account sites can be re-purposed as biodiversity offsetting and ecological compensation areas.

This combination of land and infrastructure makes bayernhafen Regensburg a strong anchor point and a major hub for the exchange of goods for the East Bavarian economy. The key prerequisite for this is the clear demarcation between port and residential areas to ensure good neighbourhood relations. The ongoing zoning plan procedures for the west port / oil port involve achieving legal clarity and planning reliability out of a cluster of historically conflicting interests – for the benefit of both the customers of the port and for its neighbours.

In January, the first barge carrying gigantic cable reels arrived in bayernhafen Regensburg. The reels, which were produced near Paris, each hold around 1.75 km of underground cable and weigh up to 80 tonnes. A tracked crane operated by the bayernhafen-based crane specialist, Schmidbauer, offloaded the reels at the heavy-lift handling quay. The first load of cable drums – more are to follow in the coming months – are being stored locally at an existing logistics site that is currently under redevelopment. The underground cables are to be used for the SuedOstLink project, which will supply Bavaria with electricity from wind energy generated in the north and east of Germany. The project is being overseen in Bavaria by the transmission system operator, TenneT.