New railway hub opens in Westphalia

Monday will see the opening of a new reloading and re-distribution point for mostly steel products in the town of Ahlen near Münster. The site is in the Westphalian part of German state North Rhine Wesphalia (NRW), somewhat to the northeast of the Ruhr Valley and its mills.

A private local entrepreneur, Wilhelm Haver, had bought a 120,000 square metres industrial area which had been forsaken for a long time. It used to belong to a company named Blomberg, and in the region since has remained known as the Blomberg ground. Haver has invested a two-digit million sum to vamp up the existing halls that take half of the area, local newspaper Westfälische Nachrichten reports.

The reconstruction was supported by the state, and NRW transport minister Hendrik Wüst will attend the opening of the new company, to be called Ahlener Logistik-Zentrum (ALZ). It addresses suppliers of mainly steel coils for further distribution by rail to customers. State rail company Westfälische Landeseisenbahn (WLE) will be reviving the 2.5 km long idled rail connection from the ground to the Ahlen freight terminal, Kallanish learns from the paper.  

“Many goods that are still coming by road truck to Ahlen can now be transferred to rail,” it quotes Haver as saying. He notes that he is in talks with various companies from the steel and chemicals industry. Haver’s own company of the same name is a local producer and provider of outside floor covering for sports and residential grounds.