An overview of the freight transport market in Europe is provided, with special reference to the situation in the Alpine region which is sensitive to environmental problems. Road freight has increased by 180% over the last 30 years but by 300% in the Alpine regions. Investments to alleviate the traffic congestion in this region will take years to complete. The possibility of increasing capacity by improving the organisation and management of existing intermodal transport chains is considered. Disincentives include lack of rail interoperability between EU countries, poor intermodal terminals, poor organisation of railway track space allocation and a lack of integrated commercial services. Improvements could include longer trains, and a European information platform to provide space allocation and information flow between operators. Studies on modal choice by shippers and forwarders are outlined. A key findling is that a minimum haulage distance of 500km and a minimum annual corridor volume of 20,000 TEUs are needed for operators to be able to offer a high-performance shuttle train service. Shippers were more willling to increase transport prices or shipping times than to consider modal shift. The growth of short sea shipping in Italy is described. The strengths of short sea shipping included quality of service, travel times and costs, whereas the weaknesses included lack of supply, reliability and cost (again). Some successful examples of best practice in intermodal freight are provided. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD E128115.
Samenvatting