It is now possible to expand on this with the growth of Duisport on the Rhine River in Germany. This "port" is turning into one of the success stories of European inland transportation and may well be a saviour for at least two ports.

According to German statistics (Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland-StaBu) the country's inland waterways carried 249m tonnes of freight in 2007 with domestic cargo only a fifth of this. The rest was mainly transit cargo from Antwerp and Rotterdam, primarily bulk, but now increasingly containers. A total of nearly 2.14m teu transitted through the inland ports according to the StaBu.

Duisport is located at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers in the industrial heartland of Nordrhein Westphalen. The river barge and shuttle train operations are primarily to Antwerp, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam, some of which are independently operated, others are operated by shipping lines. There is also a train service to Manchester and shortly to Glasgow. At the end of 2007 there were five container terminals with 10 container gantry cranes. Two of the terminals have direct loading/unloading from trains alongside barges. The most recent investment is a joint venture between NYK, CMA CGM and Duisport. The new facility has a design capacity of 100,000 teu per year, with options to expand. The total investment was E20m ($31.5m).

With Duisport investing in hub port terminals (Antwerp) and hub port carriers investing in Duisport we have an interesting mix of partners who have recognised the value of moving containers out of the terminals as quickly as possible to an inland distribution centre that is connected by rail, road and barge to most of the rest of Europe. Even Le Havre is signing up. The net impact is that this will help to reduce congestion at terminals and on highways. All to the good if we also add the positive environmental impact.