Short-sea shipping in the economy of inland transport in Europe : round table; Gothenburg, 1st-2nd April, 1982 = (La Navigation maritime à courte distance dans l’économie des transports européens).

192 Pages·1983·2.29 MB·English

by  OECD

ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE
SHORT-SEA SHIPPING
IN THE ECONOMY OF INLAND
TRANSPORT IN EUROPE
EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT
PARIS1983
ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE
REPORT OF
THE SIXTIETH ROUND TABLE
ON TRANSPORT ECONOMICS
Held in Gothenburg, Sweden, on 1st-2nd April,1982
on the following topic:
SHORT-SEA SHIPPING
IN THE ECONOMY OF INLAND
TRANSPORT IN EUROPE
EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT
TheEuropeanConferenceofMinistersofTransport(ECMT)wasinstitutedbyaProtocol
signedatBrusselson17thOctober1953. ItcomprisestheMinistersofTransportofthefollowing
19countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,
Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal. Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United
Kingdomand Yugoslavia (associatedcountries: Australia, Canada, Japan. UnitedStates).
Thepurposesofthe ECMTare:
- totakewhatevermeasuresmaybenecessarytoachieve,atgeneralorregionallevel,the
maximum use and most rational development of European inland transport of
internationalimportance:
- toco-ordinateandpromotetheactivitiesofInternationalOrganisationsconcernedwith
Europeaninlandtransport(rail,road,navigableways),takingintoaccounttheworkof
supranationalauthoritiesin thisfield.
Publieenfrancossouslelitre:
LANAVIGATION MARITIMEA COURTE DISTANCE
DANS L'ECONOMIE DESTRANSPORTS EUROPEENS
© ECMT, 1983
ECMT publications are marketed by the Saleof Publications Department ofthe OCDE,
2, rue Andre-Pascal, 75775 PARIS CEDEX 16, France.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SHORT-SEA SHIPPING IN THE ECONOMY OF
INLAND TRANSPORT' IN EUROPE
Case Studies
GREECE
V . Evmolpidis (cid:9) 5
ITALY
G. Balduini (cid:9) 37
NORWAY
T. Bonesmo, J. Engja and P. Munkerud (cid:9) 67
SWEDEN
M. Williamson (cid:9) 99
UNITED KINGDOM
CA. Rich (cid:9) 135
Summary of . the discussions
D. Bjtfrnland (cid:9) 169
List of participants (cid:9) 183
ECMT Economic Research Centre
Forthcoming publications (cid:9) 1"S9

GREECE
VASSILIS EVMOLPIDIS
Transportation Planner
Athens
SUMMARY
1. INTRODUCTION (cid:9) 7
2, COASTAL SHIPPING AND ITS ROLE IN THE OVERALL
TRANSPORT SECTOR (cid:9) . (cid:9) 8
1. Past trends of traffic (cid:9) 8
1.1. Passenger transportation (cid:9) 8
1.2. Freight transportation (cid:9) 10
1.3. Developments in infrastructure (cid:9) 12
2 . Type of cargo carried (cid:9) 13
3. Origins and destinations in coastal shipping . 18
3.1. 0-D pairs for freight transportation ... 18
3.2. 0-D pairs for passenger transportation . 23
3. COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCE OF COASTAL SHIPPING AND
INLAND MODES OF TRANSPORT (cid:9) 26
1. Freight transportation (cid:9) 26
2 . Passenger transportation (cid:9) 30
4. CONCLUSIONS (cid:9) 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY (cid:9) , 36
INTRODUCTION
Greece has historically been a country where short
sea (coastal) shipping has been until recently the most
predominant mode of transport. The large number of
islan'ds - about 450, of which some 140 are inhabited at
present - the very long coastline and the mountainous
terrain of the mainland have contributed significantly to
the importance of coastal shipping in the country. The
first two factors are also responsible to a great extent
for Greece's having one of the world's largest merchant
marine fleet, as shipping in general was the only way to
communicate with other countries. The third factor is
mostly responsible for the concentration of the greatest
proportion of the country's population along the coastline.
Thus approximately six million people or about 60 per cent
of the mainland population live along or close to the
coast. Another 1,360,000 people live on the islands,
thus bringing the proportion of the Greek population in
immediate contact with the sea and thus to some extent
dependent on coastal shipping for passenger and freight
transportation, to 75 per cent of the total.
During the last one hundred years, the construction
of road and rail transport infrastructure together with
the initiation of air transportation in Greece have led
to significant alterations in the usage of modes for
passenger and freight transportation. The motorisation of
overland transportation in conjunction with the failure of
the existing port facilities to follow up technological
and infrastructural developments (with the exception of a
handful of ports like Pireaus, Thessaloniki, Patra, Volos)
led to the reduction of the relative importance of coastal
shipping .
This paper will try to evaluate the present importance
of short sea shipping in the economy of inland transport
in Greece, and come up with recommendations about its
future role.
2. COASTAL SHIPPING AND ITS ROLE
IN THE OVERALL TRANSPORT SECTOR
The trends that have developed in the modal split of
domestic passenger and freight transportation as well as
in the infrastructure of the various modes of transport
in Greece are analysed in this chapter.
1 . Past trends of traffic
1.1. Passenger transportation
During the last 16 years the modal split in passenger
transportation has developed as in Table 1. It should be
noted that coastal shipping for passenger transportation
is almost completely limited to services between the main¬
land and the islands.
Table 1
DEVELOPMENT OF MODAL SPLIT IN DOMESTIC PASSENGER TRANSPORT
( '000)
Coastal Intercity Air
Railroads Total
shipping buses transport
/ % # % # % # % 4
1962 3,894 3.8 86,289 84.7 11,418 11.2 335 0.3 101,936
1972 7,360 3.9 166,957 88.6 12,433 6.6 1,587 0.9 188,337
1978 7,858 3.6 194,346 90.0 10,286 4.8 3,332 1.6 215,822
Aver¬
age
annual
7.3% 6.8% 0.8% 16.8% 6.3%
growth
1962-
1972
Aver¬
age
annual
1.1% 2.6% -3.2% 13.2%, 2.3%
growth
1972-
1978
Source: National Statistical Service of Greece.
It is observed that coastal shipping has been almost
steadily occupying about 4 per cent of the traffic although
at a declining rate. Thus, compared to an average annual
growth rate of 7.3 per cent in the number of passengers
served between 1962-1972, the growth rate between 1972 and
1978 dropped to a mere 1.1 per cent. The largest growth
rate in both periods was observed in air transportation
which constitutes the only competitor to coastal shipping
in the "mainland-to-islands" travel desires. The stag¬
nation in the growth of coastal shipping despite the spec¬
tacular annual growth rate of 14.6 per cent of tourism in
Greece (most tourists visit the islands) can be attributed
almost totally to the competition offered by air transport.-
Despite its recreational character coastal shipping is
seriously hurt by the low speed and low frequencies of
ship operations and relatively modest quality of services
offered.
Several new services using hydrofoil type vessels
were initiated in the last five years. These services
provide fast, frequent and. good quality connections to the
Argosaronikos islands as well as to several locations on
mainland Greece, i.e. Peloponnisos . The growth rate
observed on these connections and traffic carried are
presented in Table 2. Thus the average annual increase of
the number of passengers carried was about 41 per cent
compared to 7.3 per cent for the remaining coastal passen¬
ger transportation, indicating that a more up-to-date and
reliable service can replace conventional and moderate
quality services.
Table 2
TRAFFIC USING HYDROFOIL VESSELS
Passengers Growth Average
Year
carried rate occupancy rate
1976 235,000 _ 33 %
1977 360,000 53 % 39 %
1978 720,000 100 % 42 %
1979 830,000 15 % 47 %
1980 930,000 12 % 52 %
Source: Ceres Shipping Company.
It is worth noting that, according to Table 1, the
total number of passengers transported by all modes had a
declining annual growth rate from 6.3 per cent between
1962-1972 to 2.3 per cent between 1972-1978. This decline
concerns only mass transportation modes and not transpor¬
tation executed by private cars. According to relevant