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In Western Europe, the rail freight industry has been liberalized during recent years. The number of actors multiplies, the network connections of railroad and intermodal logistics companies grow and new actors enter the market. A directive called for separated accounting structures between the network provider and the operational activities. The right to privately operate, at first international and afterwards national freight trains came later. The liberalization had a major impact on the former state-owned monopolistic rail companies (the incumbents) and logistics actors calling at them. New market possibilities arose, but more actors now need to collaborate. This paper explores new logistics concepts in Western Europe, involving rail transport, now being in the trial-or investigation phase. This paper deals with the use of rail transport as part of the supply chain in an urban logistics context. The link will be made between two research subjects: the economic and ecologic viability of rail or intermodal transport, and the logistics capacity problems in an urban context, the latter of which is a growing research stream. First, a brief overview of the European railway market will be given. The difference between the European short-distance rail freight organization and American short-haul services will be described. Second, the concept of a new smart supply chain involving rail, developed by Deketele et al., will be given. The theory of the concept was put in to practice in Belgium by Procter and Gamble. This will be highlighted shortly. Afterwards, the concept of the modern supply chain involving rail will be compared to the actual supply chain of the French retail group Monoprix. The Monoprix supply chain will be discussed in the framework developed by Deketele et al. The actual French logistics bottlenecks, modal split, important legislation and The use of rail transport as part of the supply chain in an urban logistics context

Unique evolutionary potential could be lost when a population goes extinct or when individuals are translocated to other existing populations. Therefore, in order to identify priorities and to predict the efficiency and consequences of conservation actions, information is needed on the genetic structure of natural populations. In the urbanized and diverse landscapes of Flanders, Belgium, natterjack toad (Epidalea calamita) populations have been declining over the last decades. Therefore, this species is subjected to a wide range of different types of conservation measures (e.g. habitat management, corridor development, translocations). However, more information is needed on its genetic population structure. In this study, we sampled egg clutches from six populations and studied their genetic structure with six microsatellite markers. In total, 184 samples from 99 different egg strings were genotyped. Observed heterozygosity was generally high, even for the small and isolated populations (overall mean HO = 0.43). The weak clustering by the Bayesian analyses (STRUCTURE, Adegenet and BAPS) does not allow us to make strong conclusions on the population structure. However, the significant ΦST values between the populations underline the importance of genetic information when conservation priorities are discussed. Unique evolutionary potential could be lost when one or more natterjack toad populations would go extinct, and translocation of individuals to other existing populations should be considered with caution.