Not only Germany is fighting with masses of goods on the streets.
There are also problems in Poland - and extremely important transport routes.
The country wants to take countermeasures.
Warsaw - Not only Germany has problems with transport policy: In Poland *, goods are currently being transported too seldom by rail and water.
This was determined by the Supreme Control Chamber (Najwyższa Izba Kontroli) last year.
The trend is also obviously pointing in the wrong direction.
Because the dynamics increased noticeably on the longer stretches. Around 75 percent of the goods transported here were handled via the road network. For distances over 300 kilometers, the volume of freight traffic even quadrupled between 2011 and 2018. From a climate, environmental and economic point of view, this development is increasingly criticized in Poland.
The causes of this undesirable development lie in the low competitiveness of the expensive and slow rail freight traffic in Poland.
The problem here is the low density and uneven distribution of nodes at which goods can be reloaded onto another means of transport.
This is seen as the main obstacle to the development of intermodal transport in Poland.
Inland navigation - which actually has a long tradition in Poland - has also been neglected in recent decades.
Poland: Too much freight transport by road - an eminently important route runs right through the country
Some other conditions would not be bad at all. In terms of the length of the rail network, the waterways and the geographical location, Poland is in a very good starting position to transport more goods by rail and water: Several important European trade routes and the main transport route between Asia and Europe run across the national territory . The report by the Polish Chamber of Control underlines the importance of Poland, as 80 percent of goods imported from the east to Europe pass through the country. The focus of the Polish traffic planners is on the two traffic corridors RCF 5 and RCF 8. The route RCF 5, which runs from north to south, connects the Polish container ports with the hinterland in Poland and the neighboring countries of the Czech Republic * and Slovakia to the south.The RCF 8 is used for transport from Asia to Europe.
The development opportunities are seen primarily in better interlinking of rail freight transport, inland waterway transport and road transport. Furthermore, the speed of the freight trains would have to be increased significantly. The speed of intermodal trains is currently 30 km / h on average, the speed of conventional freight trains is only 25 km / h. These values are many times higher in Germany, for example. This results in a greater expenditure of time and higher costs - which is why rail has been less attractive to date.
The speed of the freight trains is to be increased primarily through the renewal of the rail network.
Massive investments have been made in this area for years - also with financial support from Brussels.
In the past four years, the proportion of routes that can be traveled at a speed of 80 to 120 km / h has increased by 45.7 percent.
Another important element is the practical onward transport beyond the southern borders.
An improvement in the transfer points is required here.
And an infrastructure that does not end at national borders, but is suitable for international rail freight transport across borders.
On the water from the north to the south of Poland - but there is a risk of a dispute with Germany
With the focus on the RCF 5, Poland is planning a strong revival of inland shipping. After the fall of the Wall in 1989, inland shipping in Poland almost completely came to a standstill. The old barges are hardly usable any more and the infrastructure would have to be almost completely renewed. The conditions are very good with almost 4,000 kilometers of waterways. However, only 10 percent of them are currently suitable for transporting goods. Here, too, the north-south connections E30 and E40 from the Baltic Sea to the southern neighbors are of particular importance. The water transport route E70 leads across the Wisła from western Europe to Russia.
Especially in relation to Germany, the activation and above all deepening of the Oder for inland navigation from the planned Cointainer port in Świnoujście to Silesia is not without controversy.
The Polish side is striving to expand the border river, which enables regular commercial inland navigation.
The Czech side is also very interested in this expansion.
After all, the Czech Republic would have the possibility of shipping goods north to the Baltic Sea ports.
Poland wants to strengthen inland shipping - German environmental groups are sounding the alarm
On the German side there are considerable concerns about the expansion of the Oder, especially from nature and environmental groups. The planned serious interventions in the structure of the river bed and the surrounding nature primarily affect Brandenburg. There are still unanswered questions about the impact on the water table and the risk of flooding. An alliance with the participation of the Bund Naturschutz recently warned of “unacceptable damage to ecosystems”, “drying up of the floodplains” - and a greater risk of flooding on both sides of the Oder.
At the same time, however, it is also pointed out in Potsdam that the Schwedt location on the Oder with its industry could definitely benefit from the new waterway.
The connection to the Baltic Sea via the Oder could also come in very handy for other branches of the economy in Brandenburg.
* Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
Aleksandra Fedorska
