• Transport Research

The EU transport policy supports the development of the motorways of the sea (MOS) network as a priority axis of the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T). In the general context of the EU transport policy and legislation, the Italian national authorities recognise the specific role of motorways of the sea links as one of the strategic action areas that can facilitate the mobility of freight. In this paper, the state of the art regarding the implementation of the MOS program in Italy is illustrated, with special regard to the services now in operation and the specific transport policy initiatives promoted by the Italian national authorities. Following the “Piano Generale della Mobilità”, published by the Italian Ministry of Transport in 2007, ports, together with airports and railway terminals, are included in the list of the so-called “international doors”, which are considered to be the most important nodes of the Italian transport network as a whole. The “Piano Generale della Mobilità” aims to encourage the development of synergies and to increase the level of integration between lo-lo and ro-ro services, which deploy more or less the same amount of capacity. In 2002 the Italian government promoted the so-called “Ecobonus” initiative. In 2004 it set up a new government-controlled company, Rete Autostrade Mediterranee (R.A.M.), with the specific task to support and co-ordinate actions for the development of motorways of the sea services at the national and European level. The Ecobonus is an incentive that the Italian national authorities offer to the trucking community in order to shift traffic volumes from road to motorways of the sea routes involving Italian ports. The Ecobonus accounts for up to 30% of the price of the ticket and it is offered to those truckers who opt for the sea instead of the road, with a particular premium for truckers who reach a high number of trips/year (1600). This kind of premium aims also to enhance the pooling of small operators. Both national and EU routes to be promoted through the ecobonus initiative are identified by the Italian Law. In this work, for each Italian domestic and international scheduled MOS route, the operator, the weekly frequency, the average travel time, the sea distance and the price have been identified and reported. Nowadays, traffic volumes on Italian MOS represent 5% of the total freight traffic volumes served by the Italian inland motorway system and an amount of 8% is the target-value expected for year 2011. A total amount of 460 return trips on 79 routes are operated by 39 companies. The average route length and the average speed are equal to 536 km and 34 km/h respectively. The most important operator that serves Italian ports with MOS lines is Grimaldi Group Napoli, which accounts for the 13% of the services in km per week. 24 Italian ports offer motorways of the sea services and Genoa, Ancona and Civitavecchia ports are the top three for km per week of scheduled MOS services. The price-distance functions for MOS services to/from Italian ports have been calculated, for a full-load 16-metre-long truck. The price rises, as travel distance increases. Nevertheleses, distance explains only a part of the variance of price with respect to a linear relationship between price and route length and actually prices strongly depend on the particular shipping company that operates the line. It can be noted that, actually, no Italian domestic continental motorways of the sea line is in operation yet, despite the Italian peninsula is characterised by two quite long “natural” motorways of the sea corridors like the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas. Indeed, MOS will effectively succeed to determine a modal shift towards waterway transport, only if they provide services whose quality and competitiveness are comparable to road transport. Both the efficiency of ports and the cruise speed are crucial elements for MOS lines to compete against road-only transport.

Abstract The Canary Islands depend almost completely on air transport for the inter-island distances usually exceeding 80–100 miles. 1 Apart from the transport of heavy cargo and that of low unit value by sea transport, the rest of the traffic tends to choose this means. What is more, tourism is developing in the main island and is highly dependent on air transport. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the quality of regular inter-island air transport in the Canary Islands, and how this is incorporated into the Trans-Insular Transport Axis as a social and economic integrating factor.

The need to shift goods from road to underused transport capacity led the European Commission to embark on the development of two important policies: one concerning short sea shipping (SSS) and the other concerning the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). While for many years these policies were delineated separately, the introduction of ports and Project 21 in the TEN-T brought these two policies together. In light of this, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of the TEN-T on SSS. To achieve this, the paper describes the SSS market segment; it puts into a historical perspective the TEN-T policy; and it carries out an assessment of the impact of the TEN-T on SSS. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2007) 9, 302–323. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100184

Because of their critical strategic role, ports have all traditionally been subject to some form of government control even if the legal form and the intensity of this control have varied across countries. The member countries of the European Union have not been different from the rest of the world in this respect. A significant difference however is the recurrent effort to integrate, in a coordinated way, the port sector in a trans-European transport network (TEN-T) through the adoption of a common legal framework. In this context, if the objective of the reforms is to ensure that port networks, integrated in combined transport networks, become competitors of the road network, the concept of port efficiency becomes central. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of the European Port Legislation and shows how comparative economic measures can be used to highlight the scope for port efficiency improvements, essential to allow short sea shipping transport to compete with road transport in Europe. To our knowledge, this paper is also the first effort of estimating technical efficiency of European Port Authorities. The average port efficiency in 2002 was estimated to be around 60%, denoting that ports could have handled 40% more traffic with the same resources. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2007) 9, 148–171. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100177

The topic of strategic transport planning understands targeted research of specific aspects relevant for a comprehensive systemic analysis of the transport sector. This paper treats the transport system functions in the European integration processes, correlations of transport from the economic, ecological and social aspect, contents of the transport sector harmonization – transport acquis, elements of strategic transport planning and further development projection of the Trans-European transport system.

The trans-European transport network has different effects at macro-regional, mezzo-regional and micro-regional level, and on urban systems development, and its effectiveness rises at the lower regional levels. Possible approaches to the trans-European transport network impact and effect survey and policy options have been pointed out. The importance of increased accessibility and mobility for regional expansion and for more balanced and polycentric system of city networks has been underlined. The question is how the new major transport infrastructure affects the development of functional complementarity between cities and regions. Changes of the spatial organization, utilization and structure of cities, as well as of social benefits and losses subsequent to impacts of trans-European transport corridor "X" on urban system Ćuprija-Jagodina-Paraćin at section Belgrade-Nis have been analysed. The new trans-European or major transport infrastructure does not per se create regional and urban system network development, although it can affect the conditions for the processes that create growth and development. The effects can be increased by co-ordination of measures of regional and urban policy, land use, transport and other policies. The guidances and options of urban systems and urban centres development policies in trans-European transport corridor, as well as possibilities to improve our planning system have been given. The necessary measure is the introduction of spatial impact assessment as sectorial policy instrument for the large transport infrastructure projects. U radu se polazi od pretpostavke da se uticaj transevropskih saobraćajnih koridora različito manifestuje na makro, mezo i mikroregionalnom planu, odnosno da se povećava sa snižavanjem regionalnog nivoa. Ukazuje se na moguće pristupe istraživanju pozitivnih i negativnih efekata transevropskog saobraćajnog koridora. Jedno od pitanja je da li i koliko ovi koridori mogu da utiču na razvoj makro i mezo regionalnih celina i aglomeracionih sistema u pogledu kretanja, rada, stanovanja, raspodele, specijalizacije funkcija naselja i sl. Analiziraju se uticaji autoputa i železničke pruge na organizaciju i namenu urbanog prostora i promene u ekonomskom i socijalnom životu lokalnog stanovništva u koridoru "X", na primeru trograđa Ćuprija-Jagodina-Paraćin na deonici od Beograda do Niša. Transevropski i magistralni infrastrukturni koridori predstavljaju jedan od značajnih preduslova i podsticaja za razvoj, ali ne mogu sami po sebi da generišu očekivani razvoj, bez podrške odgovarajućih mera i instrumenata različitih politika. Daju se smernice i opcije razvoja urbanih sistema i centara u magistralnim infrastrukturnim koridorima i, sa tog stanovišta, preporuke za unapređenje našeg sistema planiranja. Kao jedna od mera predlaže se izrada analize prostornog uticaja za transevropske i magistralne saobraćajne koridore u procesu sektorskog planiranja i pripreme tehničke dokumentacije.

This paper addresses the extension of cross-border transport within the EU. Despite the longstanding efforts of transport and cohesion policies to improve cross-border transport, many border regions still face challenges related to transport infrastructure and local public transport; these are discussed in the first part of this paper. Transport policy goals and instruments on the EU level are then discussed and their impact is assessed using case studies in the border area. As EU policy and funding instruments are not particularly concrete or binding, there are still significant variations between the national policies of member states. Implementation requires strong political will and secure funding. As transport is an important foundation for other aspects of cross-border cooperation, sustained investment in this key area is required.

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit dem Ausbau des grenzüberschreitenden Verkehrs innerhalb der EU. Trotz jahrelanger Bestrebungen im Bereich des grenzüberschreitenden Verkehrs durch die Verkehrs- und Kohäsionspolitik bestehen nach wie vor in vielen Grenzregionen Herausforderungen in Bezug auf Verkehrsinfrastruktur und Öffentlichen Verkehr. Diese werden im ersten Teil des Beitrags beleuchtet. Danach werden die verkehrspolitischen Ziele und Instrumente auf EU-Ebene präsentiert, die anschließend anhand von Fallbeispielen im Grenzraum auf ihren Einfluss überprüft werden. Die EU-Politik und die Förderinstrumente sind wenig konkret und verbindlich, sodass in der nationalen Politik der Mitgliedsstaaten nach wie vor große Unterschiede herrschen. Wichtig für die Umsetzung sind ein starker politischer Wille und eine gesicherte Finanzierung. Verkehr ist eine wichtige Basis für andere Bereiche in der grenzüberschreitenden Zusammenarbeit. Es sollte daher nachhaltig in dieses Schlüsselfeld investiert werden. This paper is concerned with the extension of cross-border transport within the EU. Despite the longstanding efforts of transport and cohesion policies to improve cross-border transport, many border regions still face challenges related to transport infrastructure and local public transportation. These are discussed in the first part of the paper. Transport policy goals and instruments on the EU level are then presented and their impact is assessed using case studies in the border area. EU policy and funding instruments are neither particularly concrete nor binding, so that there are still great variations between the national policies of member states. Implementation requires strong political will and secure finance. Transport is an important foundation for other fields of cross-border cooperation. Sustained investment in this key area is therefore necessary.