Interview:

You have been heading sales for Port Railway at HPA since 1 December 2018. How did you come to take this position?

I knew my predecessor Sebastian Doderer and discovered on the XING business portal that he was leaving HPA. We had worked on several projects together in the past and still had a good connection. I then simply asked if the position as head of sales was already taken and applied with HPA like everyone else.

What exactly are your responsibilities?

We are responsible for the contact with our customers, who are mainly the railway companies and the private siding owners. We take care of the business handling of contracts and the calculation of charges; we support new and existing customers. The entire team continually works on improvements, changes, construction measures and so on. I’m the communications interface between the customers and employees of Port Railway.

There are 155 railway companies registered today with the Port of Hamburg. How do you manage them all?

It’s very simple actually. We treat all our customers the same, which is our highest guiding principle. We have published terms and conditions which clearly dictate how we work with the customer. Every now and again there is the need to communicate regarding invoices, charges or construction projects.

What other departments at HPA do you work with and how?

Sales at Port Railway work together with all the relevant HPA departments. Our main interfaces are Marketing and Communication, as well as Port Estate.

What’s the most exciting aspect of your task in your eyes?

My job involves cross-departmental tasks. We face new challenges every day, and we must adjust to these at short notice. This is a good thing, because it means it never gets boring and can really be a lot of fun. And when I don’t have an answer immediately or an idea, I can always draw on my fabulous team. We communicate very openly and find a solution together. They have a lot of bundled know-how from which I can benefit. I like the fact that I don’t have to know everything and have employees who can support me with topics which I’m not informed about in deep detail.

Port Railway transported 46.8 million tons of maritime goods last year via rail. And it recorded a growth of 13.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 over the previous year. How do you explain this record-breaking result?

First of all, I must clarify that we at Port Railway are only the infrastructure service provider and do not offer transport services ourself. Which is why we prefer to use the term “handling”. We are naturally delighted that our customers are transporting more via rail and that the Port of Hamburg can make such a big contribution to climate protection in this way. In the end, the hinterland plays an essential role for Hamburg. Without a functioning hinterland, for instance Vienna, Dresden and Prague, the port would not function so well. This is also one of our main tasks: strengthening the hinterland transport and presenting it in a transparent way. The question of the reasons for the growth in transport is therefore not so easy to answer.

What sort of challenges does Port Railway face in light of the ongoing increase in goods handling?

We as an infrastructure service provider have to mainly ensure the respective operational capacities are available and that customers have access to the transport routes, and we must ensure the fast coordination of transport in the loading terminals. This process has to flow smoothly in order to be able to forward the goods as quickly as possible. For the growing flow of goods in future, a further optimisation of the operational procedures and intelligent IT support are of fundamental importance.

Which role does the new locomotive service point play for the future of Port Railway?

The new locomotive service point optimises the operational procedures of our customers and reduces the number of empty runs, thus creating more capacity when it comes to the use of the tracks for trains with cargo. We have thus created an operational point where the locomotives can be parked, filled up with sand and refuelled with diesel. And, of course, repaired when something breaks down. We have a locomotive workshop in such cases. You can imagine it all working like a small car service area off the motorway. The sand filling system is quite important; I believe it’s the only one of its kind. Wheel and track can quite easily begin to slide and with a special quartz sand in front of each wheel arch, the train has a better grip, which makes braking safer. In the past, the train driver had to sand the tracks by hand by tipping a 20 kilogram sack of sand into a funnel. A locomotive carries 1.2 tons of sand and can be fully filled in the sand filling system at the press of a button.

You control the processes at Germany’s largest railway port using the IT system transPORT rail. What are the advantages of this digital control?

The lawmakers have given control of operations to the respective infrastructure operators. Due to the high volume of traffic, control over operations can only be achieved with IT support. transPORT rail allows for a discrimination-free and customer-suitable control.

How high is the level of stress in your position and what do you do to relax?

The level of stress is as one would expect for such a cross-departmental function. You have to think fast and be flexible, and assess things; I like the variety. To relax, I play in a drum Salsa group. We practice once a week and perform during marathons, for instance, to provide accompanying music. When I’m not drumming, I like to photograph, preferably people.  

You work mainly with male colleagues. Do you sometimes wish you had more female support?

I don’t know it to be any other way! At the East German Railway, we were nearly all women. In Frankfurt I was then the first woman in the central locomotive duty. I wish sometimes that there were more women in leadership positions to freshen up the communication within teams.

Which place in the port fascinates you the most?

I had to think a long time about this. It’s actually like this: when I return from travels and am near Hamburg, where I see the cranes from far away, then I’m already home. I travel a lot and as soon as I see the first thing that has to do with the port, it’s a very special moment for me. The Elbe, the cranes, ships or even a train … I haven’t named one specific place where I especially like to be. When I return from business trips and feel the presence of the port, it’s the most beautiful moment.

Thank you for this Interview.