Transport Modes and Intermodality

Abstract

There is a growing concern and global awareness that transportation sector and transportation chains need to considerably decrease their environmental load. All different parties of transport sector, whether it is consumer or business customer, have used to have short lead times, high delivery precision, and valuable services offered by reasonable or cheap prices. However, most of this comes with cost, and that is increasing the dependency on diesel oil and increasing amount of global CO 2 emissions. In this article, intermodal transport solutions in general are reviewed to illustrate remedies to current situation. Both continental and shorter distance hinterland transportation chains are being reviewed. Special focus is given for railway sector, which plays a key role in the oil independent and CO 2 neutral transportation chains. As this article illustrates, oil supply globally is tight and consumption is increasing in emerging markets, like China and among major oil producers. In addition, in some areas, like Europe Union, domestic oil supply has dramatically declined after early 2000, illustrating case for peak oil theory.

Container Sea Ports and Dry Ports: Future CO2 Emission Reduction Potential in China

“…Countries are not only interested in more green transport, due to environmental reasons, but also in having greater trade deficits to oil-producing countries. This concerns not only Europe, but also North America and China [3]. In an oil dependency questions, focus is often on hinterland transports, where dominating road transports typically tie the country to continuously increasing use of diesel.…”

“…In an oil dependency questions, focus is often on hinterland transports, where dominating road transports typically tie the country to continuously increasing use of diesel. One serious alternative to tackling oil dependency and CO 2 emitting than road transport, larger container ships with 8000 or above containers nearly reach the railway's emission levels [3]. Therefore, having a longer sea journey to the closer container sea port and using still road within hinterland transports, could be much more environmentally friendly than the current situation (of few hub sea ports and longer hinterland transport amounts).…”