Intermodal Freight Transport on the ScanMed Corridor: Rail-Road-Sea Integration, Efficiency, and System Optimization

Abstract

With freight transportation being the backbone of economies and preventing a looming climate crisis, a closer look into the modes of freight transportation is needed. To address the economic viability and the environmental impact of a transportation mode, this report compares the transportation costs, the transportation time, and the carbon dioxide emissions of road, rail, and maritime transportation. Policies by the European Union to strengthen the single market incentivize a modal shift of freight transportation from the road to more sustainable modes, including rail transport. Therefore, the European Union has introduced the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). This network consists of essential freight corridors across Europe that shall be strengthened. One of these corridors is the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor spanning from Finland across the Scandinavian countries, down to Malta. On this corridor lie Gothenburg and Hamburg with the unique situation of being able to transport freight between these two places by truck, train, or feeder ship. Thus, a comparison between unimodal and intermodal transportation on this stretch is conducted. To take first and last mile logistics into account, transporting a container completely by truck is compared to transporting a container by feeder ship or by train for the main leg and by truck for the first and last mile. Furthermore, a comparison of electric freight systems is undertaken and a proposal to enhance rail freight attractiveness through higher reloading efficiency is explored. The report finds that the best suited mode of intermodal transportation, including first and last mile logistics, is road–rail. It achieves the lowest cost and fastest transportation time for the given route. The most environmentally friendly mode of transportation is the feeder ship, but it has the highest costs and longest transportation time. Furthermore, electrified trains consume approximately 78 % less energy than electrified trucks at this distance. Lastly, an improvement of the reloading efficiency of rail freight could drastically improve its competitiveness.