Within the framework of the study, all possible issues concerned with the development of the FERRMED Rail Network were examined. The FERRMED Great Axis Rail Network is the freight rail network included in the “Red Banana” area, connecting the following countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The rail network comprising of the FERRMED Great Axis includes the zone of the most important economic and logistics activities, including the major ports and airports, of the European Union. The overall objective of the current project was to match Freight Supply and Demand during the period 2007 – 2025 in the FERRMED Great Axis area of influence and to optimize traffic between the different modes of transportation in view of taking up 30-35% of the land traffic by rail by implementing FERRMED Standards and improving the conditions of capacity, intermodality and interoperability of the rail in this Great Axis Network.
The FERRMED Rail Network Study involved an extensive data collection period, followed by the development of the traffic model and the rail network analysis. The FERRMED Rail Network Study provided proposals to overcome line capacity bottlenecks and ways for the progressive development of the “FERRMED standards” across the study area. The proposals were valued and analysed in order to compare the “no-FERRMED” to the “FERRMED” scenarios. Environmental considerations, as well as policy and administrative issues were also analysed to come up with concrete recommendations for the future of the FERRMED Rail Network. Furthermore, a thorough market analysis took place, which led to a considerable market opinion exercise, through face-to-face interviews with key players in the market of freight transport.
The results of the Cost-Benefit Analysis included in the study, confirmed that the FERRMED concept is indeed meaningful from a societal point of view and across all regions and countries within the area of influence of the main and feeder rail lines of the FERRMED corridor and the European Union in general. The freight transported in the Red Banana countries by train increases significantly between the Reference and the FERRMED Scenarios. Finally, the Study proposes and prioritizes solutions and investments concerning bottlenecks confrontation, large cities’ by-passes, “FERRMED standards” implementation, terminals development etc., while the funding potential is also examined.
Client: FERRMED Association | Year: 2007-2009
