EUDET - Evaluation of the Danube Waterway as a key European Transport Resource
Overview
Background & policy context:
The Danube river has been one of Europe's most important waterways for several centuries, and has seen the connection to Central and Western European waterways via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal in the early 1990's. Nevertheless, transport volume on the Danube has fallen dramatically behind those of competing road and rail networks. This has been mainly triggered by political reasons, in particular the crisis and war in former Yugoslavia, and some technological and organisational issues.
Objectives:
EUDET aimed to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the Danube waterway by identifying preconditions and measures that will turn the Danube into a key transport infrastructure for East-West European transport flows on the South-East axis.
The main objectives of EUDET have been:
- to examine existing conditions of inland navigation on the Danube;
- to identify the main physical, commercial, organisational and infrastructure bottlenecks;
- to identify interoperability requirements with related waterway systems;
- to outline intermodality requirements in order to integrate inland navigation into combined transport chains;
- to evaluate existing and future market potentials for inland navigation in the corridor through detailed freight analyses and forecasts for the year 2010;
- to develop concepts and strategies to maximise the use of the waterways;
- to evaluate the economic and environmental impact of the proposed measures; and
- to provide comprehensive recommendations for the development of inland navigation in the corridor and for supporting policies.
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