Baltic Press - Baltic Transport Journal

Road transport in the Baltic countries

It might seem that maritime transport should play a special role and ensure international and regional integration in the Baltic Sea Region. However, the road sector is still the most important transport mode in this area.

The BSR is not an exception. All over the European Union road transport dominates in the modal structure though it is the most environmental unfriendly transport mode generating the highest social costs. Russia is not included in this analysis since only small parts of the country are near the Baltic Sea and, more importantly, only a small part of its land-based transport infrastructure is directed toward Baltic ports.

[read more]

European Transport Policy between the East and the West

The European transport policy, especially in road transport, is facing a complicated trade-off because of two opposing pressures: reduction in transport costs in some sectors, and at the same time, increase in transport cost for the consumers.

The economic unification of Europe has led to a long-term trend of decreasing the transport price within Europe and also in the world. It has developed and reinforced the globalisation of markets and production process. In this framework, the priority of the European public policy was the development of infrastructure and fair competition among the entire transport sector (intermodal and intramodal).
[read more]

Railway transport market in Baltic Europe: an overview

The share of the Baltic Sea Region countries in the EU-27 rail freight market increased from 49.3% in 1995 to 54.2% in 2006 forming one of the most competitive rail markets thanks to Germany, Poland and Sweden. Among the 30 priority projects of the TEN-T network, eight are located in the BSR. Further development of complex rail services strongly depends on the quality of rail and intermodal infrastructure.

Regardless of the structural changes and domination of services in most developed countries, railway still plays an important role in the European economy. Everyone is conscious of its ecological advantages, economies of scale and reliability. However, there are still some serious factors determining its lower competitiveness in comparison to its biggest rival – road transport. Inequality in infrastructure financing, limited access to networks, domination of the public sector, unfinished restructurization and deregulation and lower market flexibility are the most important barriers to the development of rails. To become more competitive rail has to act as a logistic operator instead of just being a traditional carrier of cargo and passengers. Nowadays, in Europe, a few examples exist of such strategies of transformation.One of the best is DB Holding which is now a crucial player on the European and world logistics market offering complex services out of which rail is important, but only a part of the bigger system.

[read more]