18


Issue 8 2014 - Freight Business Journal


///FRANCE


The Continent begins at Calais


France is an interesting market for UK freight operators – not only because it is our nearest neighbour, and one of the largest, but as a gateway to many other parts of the world. Ports like Marseilles and Dunkerque are increasingly marketing themselves to a British audience. But first the country’s Government has some important economic questions to answer.


Pinpointing the pinchpoints


France is playing a pivotal role in the EU-funded Weastflows (West and East freight


flows)


project that aims to deliver smarter and more sustainable freight transport across North West Europe. Its lead partner is chief executive of CRITT Transport et Logistique in France and Weastflows lead partner, Robin Poté, who explains: “The Weastflows project, an Interreg co-operation programme


project funded


by the EU, is delivering ‘on the ground’ activity across North West Europe including research to identify improvements to current freight routes and find more efficient and sustainable alternatives. At the same time, the project is trialing innovative ICT and telematics solutions in real world situations to see how


ICT can help streamline supply chains.” Specific work


in France,


includes mapping the existing freight transport infrastructure, measuring the impact of the new infrastructure on the rail and river services and identifying


track and trace


technologies which could support those services. Partners in Le Havre are also working on the development of a Sustainable Freight Gateway based around the Seine Valley region as a strategic freight transport hub and help make freight operations more sustainable and effective. One aim of Weastflows is identify pinchpoints


to or


underused freight corridors. As far as France is concerned, says Poté, “through Weastflows,


partners have identified two types of obstacles to the use of sustainable freight routes or corridors by rail or river-sea. These are pinchpoints slowing down access of freight into and out of Paris and economic balance - the


development


of sustainable transport depends on the economic equilibrium and the smooth implementation of multimodal transport. In the project, partners have tried to identify sustainable transport solutions (such as an Intermodal Route Planner) for a better connection between transport modes and track and trace systems for better traceability.” Weastflows has identified a


number of existing or future big transport infrastructure projects in each partner’s


region, their regional impact analysed and scenarios drawn up for future development. The project has also identified the current use of existing freight transport infrastructure and potential to make better use of rail and other modes. The Port of Calais planned


planned infrastructure development has been fed into the project to identify and map all infrastructure for all modes of transport across North West Europe. These maps have then been gathered into an ‘atlas’ of major North-West European freight transport infrastructures to identify transport bottlenecks and alternative freight


flow


routes, optimise efficiency and encouraging the use of more sustainable modes of transport.


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