The Higher Administrative Court of Hamburg has granted an urgent application against the relocation of the long-distance railway station Hamburg-Altona! It justified the decision with the unclear future of the car loading terminal!
These are two reasons to celebrate. Because now DB must commit itself to the future of motorail trains – and thus also of night trains with car transport.
First press releases can be found here.
Problem: How should vehicles be loaded onto car trains in the future?
The background to the urgent application is concerns about the loading of vehicles on motorail trains: the problem of when and where a new loading facility will be built remains unsolved. “The zoning decision does not provide for an equivalent replacement and does not guarantee a timely replacement either in terms of time or content,” the court declared in its decision of August 15.
The mere obligation to plan such a facility is not sufficient. It was not sufficiently clear that the operation of the old loading facility in Altona could only be abandoned once a new one had been built in Diebsteich. A particular problem here seems to be the conversion from the previous terminus station to the future through station.
Decision in summary proceedings: No appeal possible
No appeal could be lodged against the rush decision, the court spokesman said.
In the urgent application, there were further questions about the legality of the zoning decision. However, these were initially postponed because the inadequate car loading planning alone was sufficient to make the urgent application successful.
>> Read the press release from the happy activists in Altona (in German)
