Ports hinterland connections: the case of rail shuttles

Paper in proceeding, 2004

This paper focus on the use of rail shuttles in the transportation of unitised goods between ports and their hinterland. Trends as containerisation, overall growth of transportation, congested infrastructure combined with consolidation and vertical integration on the transport market indicate the growing importance and interest in hinterland transports. At the same time do ports around the world experience difficulties in fulfilling customer requirements and demands of society in general with regard to hinterland transit. It is primarily the dominating mode of hinterland transport, road, that has problem coping with increasing volumes at the same time as rail historically has not been able to meet up to market demands.