ABSTRACT
Inland waterways have a high transport capacity at very low costs of transportation and comparably lower external and infrastructure investment costs. Despite those facts inland waterways lost shares on the transport market due to a resource patchwork with considerable uncertainties regarding availability of fairway parameters among other factors. On the Danube corridor in Austria the average transport distance for inland navigation is rather long with https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> 1.040 k m https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429227196/8b5c0a5d-ddea-4c88-8eea-7152f7afb008/content/eq13204.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> compared to road https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> ( 50 k m ) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429227196/8b5c0a5d-ddea-4c88-8eea-7152f7afb008/content/eq13205.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> and rail https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> ( 220 k m ) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429227196/8b5c0a5d-ddea-4c88-8eea-7152f7afb008/content/eq13206.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> . Due to their linear structures one single bottleneck on the waterway with insufficient loading depth will limit the utilization of the entire transport fleet. For typical goods and vessel types on the river Danube https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> 1,0 c m https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429227196/8b5c0a5d-ddea-4c88-8eea-7152f7afb008/content/eq13207.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> of additional loading depth results in 7 to 14 t of further goods capacity. With variable loading depths leading to an average utilization of 55 to 60% on the upper Danube and 50 to 55% on the lower Danube inland navigation was not able to use its potential. The paper provides an overview on the current situation of the transport market as well as fairway condition related transport costs compared to other modes of transport. Based on a holistic waterway asset management approach an estimation of concerted investments impacts on transport costs on the Danube is given. The paper concludes with an assessment of different scenarios for the future of inland navigation.
