Missing links and technical interoperability prevail usually when explaining the lack of European integration in rail freight activities. The case of the successful but soon interrupted connection set by DB-Schenker and Fret SNCF from 2003 to 2009 between two main rail terminals Woippy (France) and Mannheim (Germany) highlights other decisive drivers for inter-connecting two national offers into a common service. Why did it failed? A first explanation could be the decision taken by the European Commission to maintain at all costs the principle of competition instead of tolerating cooperation between rail monopolies. A second and more convincing explanation underlines the strategic change undergone by one of the partners. The rapid decline of Fret SNCF’s activities in that period led its virtual withdrawing from the wagonload offer on domestic market. This strategic choice made it impossible to continue such a service on an international scale, leading to an end to the bi-national collaboration. The understanding of the vanished Woippy-Mannheim system is also an opportunity to analyze different ways an international border can be managed by a rail service by mobilizing the concept of proximity understood in its territorial and organizational and strategic components. Finally, rail freight traffic is increasingly linked with the hinterland densification of major ports of the Northern range which are based on shuttles and full load train and less demand for marshalling […]
Nowadays, ports are strategic entities and represent driving force of the world economy. This trend increased with the containerization. The Euro-Mediterranean ports are involved in a battle to become key actors on a regional scale, by trying to attract the most important part of the traffic coming from Asian ports. We propose, in the euro-Mediterranean scale a quantitative analysis of the traffic evolution of the various ports through the data of containerized traffic with a multiscale approach between micro (port), meso (maritime gateway) and macro (European and Mediterranean). The objective is to measure different trends of proximity and spatial polarization in the traffic distribution of our 129 ports over the period 1990-2010. The results confirm slight deconcentration of the containerized traffic in the global scale but hide a different reality with a concentration of traffic in the meso scale, that of the maritime facade. This results in a strengthening of the spatial traffic concentration coupled with a polycentric structure of the containerized traffic. Through the achieved results, we were able to see the evolution of some ports, which influence was exponential over the last twenty- five years, following the example of Gothenburg, Saint-Petersburg or Tanger Med. These ports took advantage of economic and geopolitical evolutions as well as of the proximity of the other large ports with which they are linked by transshipment.
This article aims at proposing an evaluation grid for analysing local public policies relating to freight transport in French cities. It is designed to provide local authorities and freight operators with guidelines for improving the urban freight management. The analysis is carried out on two levels: first a general analysis of the French context; then, a comparative analysis of three cities (Lyon, Angers and Toulouse). Eight indicators appeared as being essential for qualifying a local public urban freight policy. They cover the determining factors of the public freight policy. This method allows a comparison between regions, as well as an assessment of progress over time.
This paper proposes an economic analysis of car sharing in France. It focuses on the economic theory of modal choice, and especially under time-cost constraints. We distinguish two types of mobility (long and short distance) to assess the impact of car sharing on the modal sharing. The results show a net advantage for the car sharing on long distance as monetary gains offset the increasing travel time. At the opposite, these solutions should be remain marginal for short distance mainly because of a preference for the personal car in terms of comfort and flexibility.