\u201cSome people complain about terminals that have been built with government subsidy but end up not being used. In the 1990s, inland terminals\/freight villages were springing up around this part of Europe [Netherlands\/Germany], as it is the heart of the industrial zone. But not all of them had a solid enough market to survive the current economic climate.<\/p>\n
“So there are some questions about the potential misalignment of public subsidy with market and operational realities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether logistics are located at the sea port or inland depends on the individual case, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the case of Rotterdam, for example, there is not enough room and there are congestion issues, therefore it makes sense to move these non-core activities inland. However, the benefits to the port terminal operators need to be clarified before further investment is undertaken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rail operators in Europe often struggle to make intermodal transport economically feasible due to short distances, he points out. In order to attract enough business to fill trains, many operators offer a door-to-door service, often rebranding themselves as logistics providers and taking more direct involvement in container management.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ECT example demonstrates how integration of operations between the sea port and the inland terminal, with regular shuttles managed jointly between the two locations, can boost demand and make the intermodal service economically competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile down-under, Melbourne, Australia\u2019s largest container port, is considering plans to set up a network of dryports to create more efficiency and ease capacity pressures.<\/p>\n
Throughput at the port reached record levels in 2010, with containers increasing by 12.6% to 2.34m teu. A recent discussion paper, \u201cShaping Melbourne\u2019s Freight Future\u201d, predicted that volumes would reach 8m teu by 2035, with more than 80% of that expected to be heading through inner suburban Melbourne to and from locations within the metropolitan area.<\/p>\n
The port is in the centre of the city, which is getting increasingly congested; the idea is to develop three rail and road-linked hubs around the fringes, for short-haul delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing the [dryport] concept as more about network efficiency, in the face of increasing urban road congestion, than port capacity per se,\u201d says Mark Curry, director of freight policy, network planning and strategy in the Victoria Department of Transport\u2019s logistics and marine division. \u201cMelbourne\u2019s capacity problems at this time relate more to physical berth length and immediate back-up land.\u201d<\/p>\n
A formal \u2018market sounding\u2019 process was conducted last year seeking interest in participation in trial operations and\/or service start-up operations. \u201cThere was a good response to the process but the process confirmed that government funding would be required to see trial or start-up services,\u201d says Mr Curry. \u201cDue to budget constraints, such funding is unlikely to be available before 2013\/14.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is some evidence of \u2018optimism bias\u2019 in government support of inland terminals in the Netherlands, as well as in other European countries, says Jason Monios of TRI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-8404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-container-cargo-handling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8406,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions\/8406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8404"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=8404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}