“These systems have to guarantee security and sufficient capacities and have to take into account ecological and economical aspects,” reports Otto Schwetz, Director of the TINA Secretariat of the City of Vienna. The Agenda 2000 stresses the importance of the development of the TEN and recognises the necessity of upgrading the traffic infrastructure in the Central and Eastern European countries.
“The unfinished connections between the EU and the countries along the Danube corridor must be built up in the shortest possible time,” stresses Schwetz.
The members of the working group are convinced that inland waterways will become more and more important for international transport because economic (cost efficiency) factors and the ecological situation are gaining relevance.
In this context, the Danube corridor is of special importance, since it is the only one that connects Eastern and Western Europe. “Therefore, the Danube countries have to be connected to rail and road corridors at ports to create a broad basis for intermodal traffic,” is one of the conclusion of the working group.
The main problems in rail transport among the CEE countries are to be found in the old rolling stock, the long stops at the borders, and poor price/efficiency relations in combined transport and – especially now – blocked transport on the Danube. As far as air traffic is concerned, there are bottlenecks in loading and unloading at the airports and in the amount of suitable aircraft.
Transport on the Danube waterway has been drastically reduced since 1987, primarily because of the overall reduction of economic activities in the Eastern European states and due to the growing competition between the different means of transport.
“The fact that goods traditionally transported and especially suited for transportation on water have been taken over by the railroads,” says Schwetz.
“Taking this into account, an important step (besides re-establishing Danube navigation) will be the upgrading of ports and their facilities,” continues the expert.
The working group demands the creation of uniform quality standards for the different transport systems in the CEE countries and in Western Europe and the harmonisation of technologies and legal frameworks. (Source: aqua press Int. 06/99)
