Assessing the benefits of a decentralized waterborne container transportation service from the perspective of a canal port

Abstract

For a modal shift from road to inland waterway transportation, a new transportation service in the West German canal network, which is located in the hinterland of the Belgian, Dutch, and German seaports and between their respective hinterland hubs, has been designed and examined. Therefore, the new concept is designed as a feeder shuttle between these hubs. However, the effect of the new service on the canal ports in the region was still to be proven. The performance of the concept is measured and evaluated in different scenarios with the help of discrete-event simulation. The example of the port of Osnabrück, Germany, is used to illustrate the case and to show the impact the new service has on the participating canal ports. Based on the findings, the configuration of the service can be finetuned before the involved vessel operators and canal port authorities can prepare the rollout.