The AIM of the project is to make intermodal rail transport in, from and to North West Europe (NWE) more competitive, in particular between the Dutch and the Belgian seaports and European inland terminals, in this way creating the conditions to shift flows from the road to the rail sector, providing in more sustainable and robust transport and a higher network connectivity and territorial cohesion within NWE. The central configuration to achieve this aim is the Twin hub network, a transnational rail service network. Its implementation to improve intermodal performances is the MAIN OBJECTIVE of the project.

The objective refers to:

1. promising networks. which could be implemented on the short to long term.
2. A pilot (demonstration) network with three Twin hub trains to be implemented within the project period.

The Twin hub network connects seaports with inland terminals (e.g. France. Germany. UK; ? App. 2). The general idea is to move Rotterdam flows in Antwerp trains to areas in which these trains have or could have a strong market position. Antwerp flows go along with Rotterdam trains to regions where Rotterdam is or could be well represented. The smaller seaports improve their rail performance by getting more attached to the train services of both large ports. Inland terminals send their load units to Dutch and Belgian ports in joint instead of separate trains.

The central logic of a hub-and-spoke network is to let smaller flows benefit from scale and scope advantages (large trainloads and high transport frequencies, more connections and a higher infrastructure utilisation); flows which for such reasons cannot be moved by direct trains (App. 3). Most intermodal rail flows are too small for direct trains, also – and maybe surprisingly – those from and to large ports as Antwerp and Rotterdam. The Twin hub cooperation generates more advantages than separated hub-and-spoke configurations, as the service region of the hubs is extended to a larger area.