Motorways of the Sea: how to make them competitive 27/02/2010 A PhD dissertation at Instituto Superior TĂŠcnico in Lisbon analyses conditions for making Motorways of the Sea a successful integration of land transport links.
A PhD dissertation at Instituto Superior TĂŠcnico in Lisbon analyses the reasons for the limited success so far of the Motorways of the Sea concept proposed by the Transport Policy White Paper launched by the European Commission in 2001, examines if they can still be considered an important element in future development of transport policies and puts forward the conditions necessary for their success. The research starts by analysing the main Legal/Regulatory, Technical, Commercial, and Environmental barriers to the implementation of the MoS concept and goes on to create a simulation model representing all aspects of the transportation decision-making at both operational and strategic policy decision-making levels. The methodology compares two concrete case studies, the Searoad case in the Atlantic maritime corridor and an example in the Mediterranean maritime corridor. In the Searoad case, competition between international road haulage and maritime-based intermodal transport between trading regions of Portugal and UK is simulated in various policy scenarios. In the modelling of the Searoad case improving port connectivity and port liberalisation are highly important for increasing the efficiency of MoS services. Equally important, in order to create a level playing field for competition between sea and road transport would be the harmonisation of fuel taxation and truck driver wages across all EU Member States. Simulation results of the Mediterranean corridor indicate that subsidies to potential clients for using MoS services and higher frequency of shipping links have a substantial impact on their performance. The dissertation concludes with general recommendations for policy formulation towards development of successful MoS links. The main contribution of the research is in showing how difficult the conditions for success of MoS in the Atlantic corridor are. It also proposes developing a decision support tool to predict the impact of some of the transport policy measures proposed by the EC to promote MoS projects in each maritime corridor. Contact for further information: Prof. JosĂŠ Viegas viegas@ist.utl.pt
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