Thirty years and 26 hectares. Baltic Hub leases Deepwater and plans a second rail siding

One bid and a year of approvals

The tender attracted a single bid, from Baltic Hub. A preliminary agreement was concluded on 30 December 2025, with completion conditional on securing all required administrative and corporate approvals. Once obtained, the final agreement was signed.

The property is covered by a valid building permit for a transhipment and storage terminal in the Northern Port, encompassing rail tracks, roads, parking, hydrotechnical infrastructure for berthing vessels and the facilities required for cargo storage and handling. Under the local zoning plan the site is designated for production and service development.

Rail is the point of the investment

Although the announcement speaks of a transhipment hub, rail is what the plans are actually about. Baltic Hub intends to build a second siding of seven tracks able to handle 750-metre trains, along with new container storage yards. The work will proceed in stages.

The 750-metre figure is not arbitrary. It is the standard adopted for freight trains on the TEN-T core network and the threshold at which rail begins to compete on cost with road haulage over longer distances. A siding that can accommodate a full-length train without splitting it changes the economics of the entire terminal.

- Expanding our rail terminal and increasing storage yard capacity, in line with the PSA Group's Node to Network strategy, will strengthen connections with the hinterland and allow more containers to move by rail, says Jan Van Mossevelde, managing director of Baltic Hub. - This will improve connection efficiency, reduce reliance on road transport and support the modal shift needed to cut emissions in supply chains.

Not only Poland

The Port of Gdańsk chief executive names the three markets at stake outright.

- Our aim is not only to strengthen the port's competitiveness and standing, but also to increase the stability of cargo flows amid the growing importance of global maritime transport and geopolitical challenges, says Dorota Pyć, president of the Port of Gdańsk Authority. - It supports more efficient and environmentally friendly supply chains and builds a strong position for the Port of Gdańsk in competing with other European ports for the markets of Central and Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine.

That is the real stake here. Gdańsk is not competing for Polish cargo, which passes through it in any case. It is competing with German and Dutch ports for the container bound for Prague, Bratislava or Lviv, and what decides that routing is not quay depth but the quality of the hinterland connection.

Groundwork already in place

Baltic Hub's investment does not begin in a vacuum. Several measures improving access to the deepwater section of the port have been completed in recent years.

The Port of Gdańsk Authority modernised the road and rail layout in the Northern Port, rebuilding and constructing 7.2 kilometres of roads and 10 kilometres of track, including the access track serving this property. A separate rail access project delivered by PKP PLK covered the modernisation of over 70 kilometres of track and 13 level crossings.

On the seaward side, the Maritime Office in Gdynia modernised the approach channel, widening it and deepening it to 18 metres. A new turning basin now allows two-way navigation, including vessels of larger dimensions that previously could not enter and leave this part of the port simultaneously. An earlier stage was the completion of the outer breakwaters, which underpin the operation of terminals in the deepwater section.

In other words: the public infrastructure was delivered first, and an operator is now adding its own piece at the end of it. That sequence is uncommon in Polish port investment and worth noting.

What follows

A thirty-year lease means Baltic Hub is planning its presence in Gdańsk on a generational rather than contractual horizon. For the port it means secured rental income and higher throughput. For Polish rail freight it signals greater volume on routes towards the southern border.

Several questions remain open. Neither the value of the investment nor the timetable for individual stages has been disclosed, and the terminal's eventual capacity after completion is not stated. At this scale, such figures typically emerge only when the first construction phase begins.