Geneva
Inland water transport is an environmentally friendly, reliable and cost-efficient mode of transport, and yet only seven per cent of goods is transported on inland waterways in the European Union (road carries 79% while rail carries 15%).
Half of Europe’s population live close to the coast or to inland waterways and most industrial centres in Europe can be reached by inland navigation. This is a mode of transport with untapped capacities and great potential for growth, as opposed to road and rail transport which are increasingly overloaded and congested.
However, while the European road and rail transport cover and link virtually every country and region, inland waterways are considerably less dense and cover only around 28,000 km. Around 5% of this European network consists of missing links and another 16% still has very limited infrastructure. Considering the lead other transport modes have, will inland water transport ever play a more prominent role in global supply chains?
At a roundtable organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) today, governments and representatives of the inland waterway industry will meet to evaluate the role of inland water transport and to identify policies and actions to turn this into an efficient, safe and sustainable pan-European transport system. The roundtable is part of the UNECE Inland Transport Committee’s 72nd annual session which convenes at the Palais des Nations from 23-25 February 2010.
In addition to cost and environmental benefits, inland water transport offers low noise levels, limited interference with passenger traffic, no holiday traffic restrictions and effective tracking and tracing of vessels and cargo.
But the industry faces many challenges before it can fully complement road and rail transport. Insufficient networks is among the biggest hurdles, but issues like seasonal operability and uncertain hydrological conditions (traffic shut-down in winter in cold regions); inadequate maintenance of infrastructure and fleet; complex decision-making processes and regulatory architecture; and shortage of skill and personnel further aggravate the situation.
The two main international inland waterways in Western Europe and South-Eastern Europe are the Rhine and the Danube where around 208 and 73 million tonnes of goods were carried in 2008 respectively. In the Russian Federation, under difficult meteorological conditions, inland waterways account for around 4% of total goods transport. In the Ukraine this share is only 1.3%. However, countries with efficient navigable waterways and year-round access, particularly along the Rhine corridor, have considerably higher shares of freight transport by inland waterways, such as the Netherlands (44%), Belgium (14%) and Germany (13%).
In 2009, transport performance on European inland waterways declined in the order of 15 to 25% due to the economic and financial crisis that hit the steel industry particularly hard and led to a severe reduction in transport demand for coal, iron ore, metal products, but also for port-hinterland transport of containers.
For further information, please contact Martin Magold on [email protected], or on 022 917 2401
Note to editors
The 72nd annual session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Inland Transport Committee (ITC) will convene from 23-25 February 2010.
The roundtable on “Sustainable Transport Development – the case of inland water transport” takes place on 23 February 2010, from 15.00-18.00.
Ref: ECE/TRANS/10/P03