In September 1997 a report from the Dutch Governmental Programme for Sustainable Technology development was published on a new, sustainable logistic concept for commodity transport in urban areas. This new logistic concept was based on automated transport of commodities through small tube-networks between shopping areas, living areas and industrial areas but also between regions. New long term prognoses for the national economy, published at almost the same time, showed an annual growth of more than 2 percent in domestic freight transport, which probably will cause a rise of economic and social costs due to congestion and environmental problems. In the discussion started by these two reports, the question raised if new inter-modal concepts, based on rail or new dedicated infrastructures lead to consolidation of transport flows and to a reduction of social costs. This question led to a research programme funded by the national authorities. The research programme focused on the feasibility of a modal shift in domestic freight transport, created by new logistic concepts. These new logistic concepts are based on intermodality and dedicated infrastructures (road, rail or other) for freight transport within and between urban areas. The technical, logistic, economic and environmental aspects of these new concepts had to be studied. The paper describes the results of the goods flow analysis, the technical analysis and the cost-benefit analysis, which were carried out in this research programme.
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