more sustainable and green alternative forms of transport,” he says.
“However, while you can build a road almost anywhere, not all industry is
next to water. To make it work, your origin and destination need to be near
water, otherwise you will start incurring extra cost for double handling.”
according to atkins’ Jeremy Thorne, an expert in freight and sustainable
transport, the UK will never see anything comparable to the European
model of water use. However, he still sees many opportunities to use
waterways as part of the transport mix.
Multi-channel
“Birmingham city centre is a good example,” he says. “it is criss-crossed by
railways and canals, which could be used to transport some of the bulky
goods currently taken by road. Given the right market and economics,
investment and traffic demand, there is the potential to pursue waterways 25
such as these as a viable alternative to current urban transport methods.”
While this may sound like a sustainable transport paradise, Thorne
emphasises that, first and foremost, it must be commercially viable.
“Freight carriers won’t use the canals just because they are picturesque
or environmentally attractive,” he says. “and, while Government is
supporting sustainable transport through its grant regime, there is a limit to
what is possible.”
Rather than try to ape the European model, where tonnage is far in
excess of anything a UK canal could handle, the prevailing idea is to go
after the niche opportunities, where the origin and destination are both
on the water.
By virtue of its geography, mainland Europe’s culture of water
transport is more developed. From the seine in the west to the Danube
in the east, waterways have evolved into major superhighways for the
THE MovE To TEsT neW
movement of freight and waste.
transport options is
Mainland Europe also offers far more opportunities to increase water
transport’s share of the market than the UK, the most obvious reason for
picKing Up the pace in this being the greater number of big rivers. The Rhine – which accounts for
LonDon, WHERE aTKins
around 70 per cent of European water freight traffic – connects the biggest
Has WoRKED WiTH
port (Rotterdam) with one of Europe’s most densely populated areas, the
Rhine-Ruhr conurbation.
TRanspoRT FoR LonDon
Thousands of containers, some on 4,400-tonne mega-barges, make
anD LoCaL BoRoUGHs
their way every day from the international terminal at Rotterdam straight
into Europe’s consumer heartland. Meanwhile, the Danube – served largely
To DEvELop aLTERnaTivE by the seaport at Constanta in Romania – carries goods east through
FREiGHT RoUTEs
Hungary to austria.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52