Why Do Railroads Carry Greater Freight Share In The United States Than In Europe? (PDF) Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
Still, there's an important residual difference, probably due to the U.S. absence of border issues, more market incentives (yes, markets are sometimes great -- but they should be seen as a tool, not an object of religious devotion), and maybe other factors.
Certainly in the UK feight just doesn't have to go so far, and so the time factor of loading and unloading become significant in terms of times. also, bulk items such as coal (which Krugman mentions) are usually just transported a few miles to power stations which were deliberately built near the coalfield.
Also, N europe has an extensive industrial canal network which is wide/deep large enough for goods to be trans-shipped by coaster from country to country without unloading to trains.
But I'm sure Dodo has a more sophisticated answer keep to the Fen Causeway
With Europe much smaller, using less coal and being able also to use river transport for a lot of bulky commodities, it creates a big difference. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The lake system extends right up to Kuopio.
I once did the Varkkaus-Lappeenranta part in an old 1913 wood-fired steamship, with a barge of birch log fuel pulled alongside. It was a fantastic experience (trip taken for a movie) but a highly recommended tourist experience in the summer - if you have the time. You can't be me, I'm taken
With no bridges or tunnels to create problems moving containers from ports to the interior is very cost effective. This doesn't work so well in the east, where containers can only be stacked one high.
It's my impression that containerized shipping is less popular in Europe for interior transport. Is this true? Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
It's my impression that containerized shipping is less popular in Europe for interior transport. Is this true?
I can only speak for the River Rhine, but in my opinion there is heavy trafic on the river. in 2005 I spend a few days in Koblenz and had a window out on the river and could see that all day long there where more or less two continues lines of ships going up and down the river.
I do live within a 10 min walk of the last lock of the Rhine, after that no more shiping is possble. Even on a weekend, you rarely have to wait longer than 10 minutes for a ship to arrive.
On the other hand Rhine even means proximity to quite a lot of people in Europe, e.g. Benelux, quite a part of Germany (and especially the heavy industry part), up to Switzerland, and e.g. in Spain, UK and Italy many people life close to the coast, so that waterway inner country transport may not be so import.
I think in the article was something about the Danube, too. There is a part of the Danube in Germany, where the upgrading to a waterway was not the highest standard and it is currently not planned. Environmentalists don't want that further upgrading, either, after all changing a river is quite an interference with the river as a biotope. Der Amerikaner ist die Orchidee unter den MenschenVolker Pispers
Well, in Europe there is a system for containertransport on rivers and canals. In Belgium, government invested in terminals for watertransported containers, and subsidised building the smaller ships (for about 80 containers).
For instance: where I live here (small town) the nearest terminal is about 25km away. There is a daily incoming/outgoing service which makes it possible to reach every container terminal in Europe (of course there is regrouping...)
This is new, and expanding fast. 5 years ago(startup) our terminal had 10 containers daily, now there are over 200. The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)
The study finds geographic differences as the most important factor (explaining 80% of the difference), and on the rest, they speculate that priority to passenger transport is most important, followed by interoperability. I think
