Objective
(RECORDIT will: 1) design a comprehensive methodology for the calculation of real (internal +external) costs of intermodal freight transport and for the understanding of cost formation mechanisms, 2) validate this methodology through its application to three meaningful European corridors (including CEEC), 3) analyse current charging and taxation systems to understand price formation mechanisms, 4) carry out a systematic cost comparison for intermodal and all-road alternatives 5) assess current imbalances and inefficiencies, 6) develop a decision support module to foster generalisation, 7) identify and analyse technical and organisational cost reduction options, 8) formulate recommendations on public policies and business actions to reduce real costs and to internalise external costs, 9) promote consensus building among operators and users, 10) disseminate project findings (2 workshops, a website).
The key RECORDIT outcomes are relative to the cost analysis at corridor level and the policy simulation for reducing intermodal costs. Concerning the former outcome, the three corridors analysed are: The freight freeway between Patras - Brindisi - Milano - Munich - Hamburg and Gothenburg; The tri-modal transport chain between Genova - Basel - Rotterdam and Manchester; The door-to-door intermodal chain along the corridor Barcelona - Lyon - Torino - Verona - Budapest and Warsaw. Total internal costs for the movement of a "Class A container" (including taxes and charges) are summarised in the table below: Corridor Intermodal All-road euro/km Genova-Manchester 1.08 1.48 Patreas-Gothenburg 0.96 1.36 Barcelona-Warsaw 1.02 1.26 The intermodal option is consistently cheaper than the all-road alternative, despite being longer. Its competitiveness is however severely undermined by the poor performance of intermodal transport in terms of trip duration, which is between 70% (Patras-Gothenburg) and 400% (Genova-Manchester) longer than for all-road. A similar comparison for marginal external costs confirms the better performance of intermodal transport. Concerning the policy options for reducing intermodal costs, the analysis is based on the identification of the most critical cost factors (drivers), and on the priority measures advocated by the White Paper, three main policy packages have been simulated with the RECORDIT DSS.
The first concentrates on the reduction of internal costs associated to terminal and transhipment operations. It features the elimination of rail-rail transhipment (interoperability), a 15% improvement of manpower productivity in terminals, and a 33% cut in capital costs. The aggregated result is a 6% reduction in total resource costs (average value for the three RECORDIT corridors).
The second scenario focuses on Pre- and Post-haulage. An optimisation of the load factor (from 60% to 90%) is the main component of this package, and yields expected savings, in terms of resource costs, evaluated in the range of 2-4% (as expected, shorter routes perform better under this scenario).
A third policy package concentrates on rail haul improvements, also with reference to the 50% reduction in rail electricity consumption advocated by the White Paper. Such an ambitious objective may be approached through a combination of measures including an increase of the number of wagons per train, a reduction in the number of stops, an increase in the load factor (up to 95%) and the generalized use of energy efficient locomotives. Altogether, this package achieves a 16% reduction in resource costs (average value between two corridors). An attempt to extrapolate these results to the Europe-wide level shows that total resource costs can be saved in the order of 82 MEuro, 173 MEuro and 59 MEuro respectively for the three scenarios, while the increase in intermodal demand induced by lower prices is estimated in 3.3 8.5 Gtkm, and 2.4 Gtkm respectively.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
ACM - Preparatory, accompanying and support measuresCoordinator
00196 Roma
Italy