Rotterdam port Authority (GHR) has released the port's container traffic modal split figures for 2007, net of sea-to-sea transhipment.
Rail achieved the strongest growth (10.5%) to 905,000 TEU, and thus kept pace with the overall growth in container traffic (10.8%). Sea-to-sea transhipment rose 17.6% in 2007 to 2.7M TEU and the total for inland distribution by rail, inland shipping or road was 8.1M TEU. Inland shipping traffic increased 7.8% to 2.445M TEU and road traffic by 8.2% to 4.749M TEU. The overall modal split for hinterland distribution was thus unchanged at 11 (rail), 30 (inland shipping), 59 (truck).
Under the "old" method of calculating modal split (ie using ECT terminals only), the shares went from 8 (rail), 26 (inland shipping), 66 (truck) in 1993 to 12, 39, 49 in 2001. After 2001 all terminals were included in the analysis. In 2002 the split was 9, 32, 59 and last year, as noted, it was 11, 30, 59. Hence road distribution is relatively stable but has grown enormously in absolute terms.
GHR's figures show:
- Deepsea Masvlatke terminals, 4.6M TEU hinterland transport - 14, 37, 49.
- Waalhaven/Eemhaven three main terminals, 2.7M TEU - 7, 25, 68. Over half the containers are intra-European and of the deepsea containers many have o/d points quite close to Rotterdam. The fact that the cargo often consists of expensive refrigerated or frozen products reinforces the function of the truck, says GHR.
- Other 10 or so terminals, all in 50-200,000 TEU range - road share between 70 and 100%. This is overwhelmingly intra-European traffic, mainly England o/d ro-ro.
GHR is currently involved with construction of a new inland container terminal in Alphen aan den Rijn, which it believes has the potential to reduce trucking moves equivalent to 90,000 TEU/year. Euromax, which has plenty of rail capacity as well as a dedicated barge quay, and Delta Barge Feeder Terminal come into operation this year.
According to Keyrail, capacity of the Betuwe Line has now been raised from one train pair every 1.5 hours to four train pairs/hour (all freight types). The port line will be switched to 25 Kv power supply and ERTMS this autumn and GHR expects 50 trains/day to be using Betuwe by the end of this year.
The list of rail freight operators will soon be joined by Shuttlewise, which will act as a neutral aggregator. The company, managed by Martijn Elbers, will initially operate between Rotterdam Shortsea Terminal and Pernis Container Terminal and Herne in the Ruhr, which is a congestion free terminal, and has connections to Scandinavia and South East Europe. The Ruhr shuttle should be operational by September and Shuttlewise hopes to develop services to Italy, Spain and Eastern Europe |
