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Port of Hamburg Magazine | December 2020 | 37
Brunsbüttel-Cuxhaven ferry link planned
Cuxhaven-based ELBFERRY has some new owners. Part- ners in Strahlmann shipping line and MTB new energy have acquired shares. The company has been re-named ELBFERRY Verwaltung – Administration – and is the gen- eral partner and sole manager of ELBFERRY in Brunsbüt- tel. Along with Heinrich Ahlers, the two Managing Part- ners Tim Brandt and Christian Strahlmann are strengthening the top management. Ahlers possesses a vast amount of experience in the port and logistics sector, plus experience of the ferry trade. He has the right part- ners on board with Christian Strahlmann, CEO of long-es- tablished Brunsbüttel shipowners Erwin Strahlmann, and Tim Brandt, CEO of MTB new energy, a cutting-edge com- pany for innovative renewable energy technologies. The new firm aims to re-invigorate the Brunsbüttel-Cuxhaven line with a new, more environment-friendly policy. Nego- tiations are currently under way with shipowners, the au- thorities and terminal owners to facilitate a start next spring. “Currently our main problem”, says Heinrich Ahlers, “is the coronavirus pandemic that is seriously hampering our progress.” Yet Christian Strahlmann is confident that the management of a ship is in more than capable hands
with the eponymous company. He sees the shipping group’s entry into the modern ferry trade as opening up a new field of business. Tim Brandt is convinced that with new propulsion concepts in future and the start with an environment-friendly ferry, the company is right on target for facilitating CO2-free mobility for passen- gers and vehicles.
© Elbreklame
© HPA / Christian Bruch
Faster construction
At the beginning of November, the Bundestag – or lower house of the Fed- eral parliament – passed a law designed to speed up investment. With these new regulations, the BMVI – Federal Ministry of Transport and Dig-
ital Infrastructure – aims to reinforce its measures promoting faster planning and building in Germany. Andreas Scheuer, Federal Transport Minister, has stated that Federal government will simplify electrification and digitalization of the rail network, barrier-free conversion of plat-
forms, and erection of noise protection barriers. In future, for instance, specific construction measures on the network will no longer need to be subject to planning procedures. Among these are: electrification of stretches of track, installation of digital signalling and safety technolo- gy, barrier-free conversion, platform raising or lengthening, and erec-
tion of noise protection walls. For these, environmental checks will be simplified. To make for shorter proceedings in the courts, in future higher administrative courts or administrative courts are to be the courts of first instance. This will affect main roads, ports projects and wind turbines. This will save one instance at the courts, and shorten time taken by proceedings. For infrastructure projects of supra-re-
gional importance – such those in the Federal Transport Infrastruc- ture Plan or mobile telephone network expansion – immediate imple- mentation will be imposed by law. According to the Ministry of
Transport and Innovation, this means that construction can begin immedi- ately upon approval by the responsible authority. In such cases, the delay- ing impact of any objections or legal challenges is eliminated.