Migration crisis causes Metrans to stop their Turkey project
Metrans, the rail division of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA), will stop its Istanbul service by the end of March 2017. In a letter to its business partners the company informed that they are forced to – temporarily – stop the operation of the Halkali-Dunajská Streda line and vice versa, effective March 31, 2017.
From the middle of January of this year, the transport corridor was fighting with difficulties as the migrants and the security of the transportation, which is requesting from all the involved parties special actions making the transportation mostly non effective. The prolonged transit times and the additional controls are making the transportation more expensive than is acceptable.
“Especially the refugee crisis and its further development is our biggest concern and despite the very good cooperation of all the partner railways and also authorities in all countries from Turkey to Slovakia we are not able to offer the transportation which would be effective and safe”, the company informs in a statement.
Since the year 2013, Metrans was operating the Turkey project with much success on the number of departures, with changes of the operation from Halkali to Cerkezköy and as the first one moving back to the renewed reopened Terminal Halkali in Istanbul. The current schedule of four weekly departures will be kept until March 31, 2017.