Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

However, the problems and risks involved with this mode of transport will also be increasing,
especially in relation to environmental problems (air and noise pollution), rising energy
costs, and accident risk. In the past decade, the transport sector was by far the industry
within the EU-25 in which energy consumption climbed the most (+2% annually as compared
with an overall 0.6% annually). About one-third of total energy demand is now absorbed
by transport, 25% of this on the road. 59 Experts assume that by 2030 trucks will have replaced
cars as the biggest CO2 polluters. 60
As these examples show, rail transport may not perform better than inland waterway transport
in regard to environmental balance, but considerably better than road transport. On the
negative side of the balance sheet is the fact that the fixed costs are much higher. The American
railroad company Union Pacific, for example, has to spend over a billion dollars annually
on maintaining, expanding and upgrading the railroad infrastructure. In view of this, it is clear
that rail transport can only compete with the road on longer distances. As a general rule, however,
the truck is only faster than the railroad as of a distance of 400-500 kilometers.
The most serious problems of European rail transport at present lie in the lack of opera bility
across national borders. These include changing locomotives and train conductors and crew,
as well as the multiple examination of various forms and credentials. Technical barriers also exist
in the form of different power systems, signals and control systems, differing axle and track
gauges, and the insufficient networking of the various IT systems. Freight cars have long been
able to travel easily between Scandinavia and Sicily. Especially in the dense traffic over the Brenner
Pass, however, delays are caused in 50% of all train transfers by the Italian railroad because
there are too few locomotives or locomotive engineers. 61 If one considers all of the interruptions
caused by the changing of locomotives and train personnel, as well as inspec-tions, checking of
papers, etc., the average speed for merchandise transport crossing national borders in Europe is
a mere 18 kph. This makes the freight train slower than an icebreaker in the Baltic Sea.
59 See EU Commission (2006b).
60 See ERTRAC (2006).
61 See Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen (2001).
114 Berenberg Bank · HWWI: Strategy 2030 · No. 4
Air freight: Low share – High growth
Compared with the total volume of goods, the share transported by air freight is relatively
small. Only 1% of world merchandise trade is carried by plane. This is also the
reason that air transport is not reflected in the modal split. By value, however, this
means of transport accounts for 40% of world trade, as it is primarily used for highquality
and expensive items such as computers and machine parts for which the expensive
but speedy air transport pays.
Regardless of the high costs, air transport will be showing sizeable growth rates. The
reasons for this can be depicted with the expressions “just in time” and “globalization.”