Rail Freight Corridor NL - CZ final version - International ...

Rail Freight Corridor NL - CZ
Currently the position of rail transport is especially strong in the transit traffic market (e.g. the
container transport services to/from the port of Rotterdam). Between 2005 and 2020 the share
of transit traffic will increase and also the direct trade between The Netherlands and Czech
Republic. The growing transit traffic provides opportunities for expansion of the railway services
(especially carriers haulage) and market share based on the current systems and services in
places that are based on carriers haulage (Maersk, NYK lines, Hyundai).
Also the direct trade flows between NL and CZ show a big potential increase. On this
continental transport road haulage is the dominant mode. A shift to rail would therefore require
new types of rail services such as trailers on train systems with a high speed and frequency in
order to provide a good alternative for road haulage.
Already a conservative estimation of the rail volumes in 2020 show an increase of 75%
compared to the volumes in the year 2005. This conservative doesn’t take into account the
changing market conditions that are in favour of rail transport and tend towards more intermodal
rail based transports.
We expect that the railway liberalization and further improvement on the cross acceptance and
railway interoperability will result in more attractive and more effective rail services that will be
suitable for shippers and other decision makers on the transport mode. Therefore one can
easily assume that the volume could also increase with 100% or more if trailer on train systems
can be put into place.
Regarding the costs of transport, currently there is a clear cost advantage of rail transport
compared to road haulage. The advantage is between 10 – 40% compared to road haulage,
depending on the situation. Also it is expected that the gap between costs between road and rail
will become larger in the near future. Moreover, especially during the weekends rail transport is
competitive because of the driving bans.
As a result not only in the transit cargo segment via Seaport Rotterdam there are opportunities
but also for the segment of the continental cargo between The Netherlands and Czech
Republic. For example by means of further integration of maritime flows and continental cargo
this can be realized. Also dedicated shuttle services for continental cargo could be interesting,
for example services based on semi-trailers or swap bodies as the main load unit.
Therefore, the final conclusion is that the position of rail transport is currently already rather
strong when looking at the modal split figures. However, these rail flows are based on maritime
flows. Since the framework conditions are becoming more favourable for rail and as a result the
consultant does expect a further increase of market share for rail transport in the future,
especially in the continental cargo market.
Identification of barriers to further development
The objective of this chapter is to investigate the current status from the point of view of road
and in particular railway transport with the aim of identifying barriers that have a negative
impact on the function of the transportation market, especially in relation to the continuously
growing amount of transported goods within the NL – CZ corridor. Barriers can be of different
kinds – administrative, technical, insufficient capacity and other.
In its introduction the chapter points to main documents issued by the European Union related
to the transport policy in general as well as the railways, it quotes the main principles of
transport policy of the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic. It presents main
international treaties and documents that regulate traffic on railways and characterizes main
8 Final report
R20080142