Common ground of citizens and river transport
Port authorities of Paris, Strasbourg and Lyon tell special correspondent of IAA PortNews about river transport projects in the municipal transport system of France.
The development of river transportation in Europe was pushed by the environmental problems. It is well known that river transport is the most environmentally friendly one but the idea to use it not only for long-distance cargo transportation but also for intracity purposes appeared when the law limiting the use of motor transport in large agglomerations came into force. However, river transport in different European countries features different levels of readiness for modal novelties.
In France, the law known as Grenelle 2 (as amended on December 29, 2012) provides for a package of environmental measures and sets forth the following targets: reduction, by 2020, of greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 20% compared to 1990 levels; increase of the share of non-automobile and non-air transport to 25% by 2022; state support of combined transportation like river-rail, river-sea, road-rail and road-sea transportation. The law says that state budget allocations are to facilitate the transition to combined transportation.
In this context, local authorities commenced developing projects allowing for partial transfer of cargoes to river transport operating within the city limits. This process is not the same in, let’s say, Paris, Strasbourg and Lyon.
Paris: “New service should be profitable”
Paris is the leader in river transport development. The capital of France is connected with the Port of Le Havre by the Seine River, major water traffic artery of the country. The port of Paris handles up to 20 mln t of cargo per year. The Port’s structure includes 70 ports including 10 multimodal platforms located along the network of inland water ways with total length of about 500 km. The port handles 13% of all cargoes going to Ile-de-France with construction materials accounting for 70% of cargo volumes.
The share of intracity transportation is not large but the port managed to implement a number of projects including Delivery of products to FRANPRIX retail shops by urban transport, Delivery of packages by Vert chez Vous, Supply of construction materials to Point P Paris stores, Transport of postconsumer plastics from Syctom sorting centres, Delivery of construction materials for Lafarge, Transportation of construction waste from the center of Paris to the Port of Gennevilliers. As of today, the port participates in the project on building Vitry-sur-Seine terminal to take away the excavated materials from the construction site of the new Grand Express line, in construction of the multifunctional distribution center Paris Austerlitz, in the project on creation of a logistic platform La Chapelle International.
As Manuel Garrido, Deputy Director of the Port’s Sustainable Development, told IAA PortNews, the companies participating in the projects aimed at the development of river transportation get financial assistance from the region while operators of the combined transport obtain assistance from the Government via the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy.
However, this assistance has been reduced considerably by today which is a matter of permanent discussions. According to the law, this assistance is to financial attractiveness of services launched and developed by combined transport operators aimefd at mitigation of the negative impact on the environment. Either operators or forwarders including alternative means into their chains can claim for the assistance.
“Proposing new models of river transportation the Port of Paris presumes that the new service should be profitable without subventions, - Manuel Garrido says. - However, assistance is always necessary in the beginning to compensate for the costs related to entering the market - like, purchase of special containers, modernization of vessels, re-equipment of berths, decrease of loading etc. Some logistic chains are faster than others to achieve breakeven results. Toughening of regulations on the use of trucks in the towns of Ile-de-France, and particularly in Paris should make these investments more profitable within a much shorter period of time.”
Financial assistance in France can be provided by different ways. There are local laws like those adopted by the city of Paris or Seine Saint Denis. Local urbanization plan of Paris authorities provides for joint use of ports for both industrial and tourism/leisure purposes.
The growth of river traffic requires fleet modernization. In 2008-2012, EUR 16.5 mln were allocated under the plan approved by the EU. New plan for modernization and innovation of the fleet (PAMI, 2013-2017) is to encourage ship owners to improve energy efficiency of their vessels, enhance their environmental sustainability through reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, decrease average age of the fleet, adapt it to transportation of new types of cargo and improve transport safety. The main purpose of the project is to make river transport more competitive. In July 2013, the plan was approved by the EU. The entire aid fund under the plan is valued at EUR 22.5 mln for a 5-year period including 12.5 mln to be provided by VNF and EUR 4 mln – by the state. The rest is to be funded by the local authorities. The plan provides for assistance in purchase or construction of new vessels, fitting of vessels with new loading/unloading equipment, modernization and conversion of vessels.
Strasbourg: “We are just in the beginning”
In June 2014, Ile-de-France and French navigation authority VNF (Navigable Waterways of France) signed a Convention on partnership in implementation of the project on multimodal transport assistance (PARM) aimed at river transport development.
The purpose of PARM, approved by EC in 2013, is to attract new cargo flows to river transport. It is to encourage heads of logistic businesses include river transport into supply chains. It means involvement of carriers, forwarders, stevedores and companies managing multimodal platforms.
Donations are to total EUR 10 mln in 2013-2017.
The regions can also be involved to increase financing by additional EUR 4 mln (up to EUR 14 mln).
PARM consists of three phases. Phase А implies financing of feasibility studies of multimodal transportation projects. Financial assistance can cover up to 50% of the project value but not exceed EUR 25,000. Phase B meaning financing of pilot projects can cover up to 25% of the value, not exceeding EUR 75,000. Financial assistance under phase С is to be used for investments into equipment and port infrastructure in the form of a co-investment contract. The assistance is fixed at EUR 0.001 per each new t-km of cargo shifted to river transport but not exceeding 30% of the project value or not exceeding EUR 500,000.
In 1986-2013, similar assistance was provided annually to 10-12 projects, some 160,000€ per project on the average. In the result, tonnage was growing by about 100,000 t per project every year.
As IAA PortNews was told at the Port of Stasbourg, the port authorities contribute to PARM implementation through special tariffs provided to start the projects.
However, it was not so long ago that the port started developing the projects directly associated with the city logistics. Aurore Mourette, Sustainable Development Project Manager at Port of Strasbourg, says “in late September 2014, Technical Committee of CUS (Сommunauté urbaine de Strasbourg) was provided with the results of study on the possibility to deliver goods from distribution centers to the stores of Strasbourg by river transport. The study had been jointly financed by the Port of Strasbourg, Voies Navigables de France (VNF) and CUS. Two variants of development will be selected among several proposals. The decision on selection of the final variant is to be taken in early 2015.
Parallel to this, the Port of Strasbourg, VNF and the Alsace region have allocated resources for the development of a project on establishment of a regular container service between the port zone of Strasbourg and the city of Saverne located on the shore of the Marne-Rhine Canal. Due to the Canal infrastructure development there are five companies in the vicinity of Saverne which generate a considerable flow of containers – up to 27,000 trucks per year which load the roads of the congested agglomeration. Motor transport delivers 5,000 – 7,000 containers to the Port of Strasbourg for further export, there is also a return flow of import containers.
Shifting of this container flow to river-going shuttle container carriers is supposed to make the delivery more economically viable if there is a regular service at the Marne-Rhine Canal. It is necessary to find solutions efficient for both carriers and dispatching companies. The study commenced in September 2014 and is supposed to be discussed in early May 2015. It will be a pilot project of a river-going shuttle container carrier to operate at short routes in France. Saverne-Strasbourg route is 40 km by river and 57 by road. The delivery by river is to take 12 hours. It is expected to deliver 4,750 TEUs to the Port of Strasbourg with 40-ft containers to account for 70% of the total flow, the return flow – 400 with 100% of 40-ft containers. The project is valued at 92,000 €».
In 2011, Strasbourg saw a fiasco of the project on garbage removal by river. This costly project was initiated by CUS in 2010. According to it, 70,000 t of garbage was supposed to be removed from Strasbourg by water ways (40% of total volume). This would decrease greenhouse gas emissions to 210 t per year instead of 763 t. However, 15-km long distance between the garbage accumulation ground and the waste burning plant is too short to make the project efficient with EUR 8.8 mln of investments (including EUR 5 mln required for accumulation ground). Yet, Strasbourg authorities said the project which was acknowledged to be too costly due to fuel costs can become more viable with the change of the market situation. Therefore it was not rejected but postponed till the time when things go better.
Lyon: it’s time to chose operators as the study has been completed
Lyon, another large city located on the Rhone river, has also expressed its desire to develop urban logistics through river transport development. Unlike Paris and Strasbourg located in the zone under the Voies Navigables de France, Lyon is situated at the bank of the Rhone being under jurisdiction of CNR (National Company of Rhone) from the 30-ies of the previous century. Due to the efforts aimed at improvement of the river infrastructure carried out by CNR from 1950 till 1980, Lyon has turned into a large port linked with the Mediterranean Sea by waterways with the dimensions sufficient for sea-and-river-going vessels. Port de Lyon Edouard Herriot is a multimodal platform. The Urban Community of Lyon, Grand Lyon, is a France’s largest intercommunal structure. To meet the contemporary challenges in 2013-2014 the Grand Lyon Council set itself a task to integrate river transport into the logistic network to cater for the urban needs.
In 2013, Grand Lyon initiated first studies which confirmed that river transport was underloaded and underestimated. Its major advantage is the ecological factor – reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. According to Diana Dizain, representative of Commercial Transport and Logistics Committee at Grand Lyon, river transport network should be primarily used for transportation of mail, small batches of goods, different materials and town waste. Michéle Vullien, Vice-President of Grand Lyon, who is in charge of municipal transport, confirms that river transport should be used for carrying heavy and bulky cargoes like construction materials as this would reduce the number of trucks in the city.
The embankments of Lyon were studied to check if they can be used for river terminals. Many of them proved to be in a good state allowing for beginning of transport projects, others require reconstruction. Part of the berths can be used for both cargo and passenger transportation. The study results were announced in October 2014. The next step is to select operators ready to launch new services.
What’s to change from 2017?
In October 2014, an interministerial conference arranged in France by DGITM announced that budget problems make France cease financial assistance to river and combined transport. So, intracity river transport in France has only several years left to enter the market with the state support. The background experience shows that initial phase in this segment is the most vulnerable in terms of economic viability. The citizens and local authorities are primarily focused on environment-related characteristics while private business is focused on profitability. As long as Grenelle 2 is in force they have a common ground.
Margarita Malysheva
We are grateful to Aurore Mourette, Denise Huet, Manuel Garrido for assistance.
About the projects:
Projects of Ports de Paris
Delivery of products to FRANPRIX retail shops by urban transport
In 2012, container fleet started developing new activity – delivery of products to large shops of Franprix, a French food retail company.
Under the project, products including food and household goods are delivered to FRANPRIX retail shops. Containers with products are delivered from a warehouse at Chennevières on the Marne river to port Bonneuil or La Bourdonnais where they are reloaded to trucks (running on Euro 5 complying with PIEK standards) and then distributed among 100 shops within the city boundaries. Annual supply volumes total 6,700 containers or 113,000 pallets. 10.013 TEUs were delivered in 2013 with this new city logistic solution. Daily deliveries are expected to increase from current 28 containers to 48 containers in the future.
The project is focused on environment production. The company emphasizes that the use of the barge is avoiding the equivalent of about 450,000 vehicle-kilometres by road-based goods vehicles per year. This corresponds to a CO2 reduction of 37% for the trip.
The project is encouraged by convenient location of warehouses and shops, positive public opinion in the communes covered by the project. To facilitate the project VNF has adjusted the operating hours of the locks in Saint-Maurice and Créteil, provided subventions for port equipment involved in cargo handling at La Bourdonnais in exchange for guaranteed transshipment volumes.
Major partners of the project are Norbert Dentressangle (as a multimodal forwarder), SCAT (operator of vessels), TDS (stevedore at Bourdonnais and Bonneul sur Marne). The project also involves Ports de Paris and Voies Navigables de France (Waterways of France).
Delivery of packages by Vert chez Vous
The project on delivery of small batches of goods by multimodal transport combining bicycle and river transport was launched in spring 2012 by Vert Chez Vous specializing in supplying of Paris shops.
Every day, a river barge specially converted into a floating warehouse used to make trips by Tolbiac-Grenelle route to deliver goods to different districts of Paris. Apart from the goods the barge carried 15 to 18 electrically powered vélos triporteurs to deliver cargo from the berths to the addresses of destination.
The company used three delivery teams. At each stop, a delivery team leaves to make
deliveries in the area (up to 2 cbm of parcels), then re-joins the barge some stops further on, once deliveries have been made. During the sailing time, the sort continues and new routes are prepared for the return of each delivery team. Each team member made 4 rounds to deliver 8 cbm of parcels which is twice as much as volumes delivered by conventional methods.
New logistic solution with the use of a specially converted river barge equipped with a crane was targeted at daily delivery of up to 144 cbm / 14 t of cargo (2,000 to 3,000 parcels weighing up to 30 kg per day)
The logistic concept was elaborated by Vert chez Vous in conjunction with LET (Laboratoire d'Economie du Transport du CNRS), SCET (subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts), DIS, IDIT (Institut du Droit International du Transport), Port de Paris authorities and Euroflots (vessel operator).
Calculated reduction in CO2 emissions is about 207.9 kg per day or 51,975 kg per year. The vessel operator was subsidized by VNF for crane installation while Port de Paris re-equipped the berth of Bourdonnais.
In September 2014, Vert chez Vous announced the termination of the project as it proved to be unprofitable due to insufficient productive capacity of the barge build to the Freycinet gauge. To resume the project implementation the company is going to replace the cargo ship and to arrange deliveries from a different warehouse located in Pantin, north-eastern suburb of Paris. Besides, they are going to take into operation new scooters driven by gas and electricity.
Transport of postconsumer plastics from Syctom sorting centres
Postconsumer plastics produced in the 10 Syctom sorting centres or centres contracted by Syctom are first transported by road up to the SITA plant in Gennevilliers. There are then loaded on a (autoloader) barge before being transported to the FPR factory in Limay (50 km from Paris). The goods are unloaded on an internal dock and then put on a platform truck, which brings the goods to the stock.
Anuual volume is 5,000 t per year. Experts say that river transport leg allows for traffic reduction by 650 trucks per year. The advantage of the project is in the location of a plant in Gennevilliers, north-western suburb of Paris, on the Seine River some 10 km from the city center.
As of today, Syctom actively uses river transport for transportation of other trash as well. Waste paper is delivered from Nanterre, Gennevilliers, Ivry-Paris XIII, Romainville and Isséane sorting centers to Grand-Couronne plant (near Rouen). Construction waste is transported by river barges to Ivry-Paris XIII, Saint-Denis and Bonneuil-sur-Marne. According to Syctom, in 2013 it transported 940,000 t of sorted waste by alternative transport including railways which is equal to 40,000 trucks that did not enter the roads of the busiest region in France.
Combustion residue is transported from Ivry-Paris XIII, Saint-Ouen and Isséane to Isles-les-Meldeuses and Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône by river barges. Bulky waste is transported from the sorting center in Saint-Denis to a specialized plant in Bonneuil-sur-Marne.
Gas production plant being built at Romainville is expected to use both railway and river transport to take away its waste.
A center for river transportation of bulky waste to Paris XIII-Tolbiac is being designed.
Delivery of construction materials for Lafarge
The project implies transportation of materials (soil, broken stone, gravel) between the quarries, storage grounds and concrete mixing stations located near the construction sites in Gennevilliers, Pantin, Javel, Bercy and Wissous.
The volume of transportation is about 2 mln t.
Lafarge operates 10 pusher-type tug boats, 84 barges servicing concrete mixing stations on the Seine River. The project involves 65 persons including 45 barge crew members.
Number of trucks avoided – 65,000.
Reduction of CO2 emissions – 11,000 t.
Extra cost savings – EUR 1.875 mln.
Lafarge Group is a manufacturer of cement, aggregates and concrete.
Transportation of construction waste from the center of Paris to the Port of Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine)
Non-hazardous waste are collected in Raboni warehouses (a distributor of materials) located along the Seine to the Paprec Gennevilliers site. From there, they are unloaded, sorted and valued: the materials extracted from mixed waste (wood, plaster, rubble, scrap metal, cardboard etc.) leave to different industries and production sectors.
The volume of waste processed – 10,000 t.
The participants of the project - Paprec Environnement IDF, Raboni (materials distributor) and Coalis (managing shipping company).
Number of trucks avoided – 1,000 units per year. Reduction of CO2 emissions - 18 tonnes per year.
Servicing of urban construction sites
Excavation materials and tunnel bricksparts are transported by freycinet (30*5.05 m) and europa (60*11.40 m) barges from Aubervilliers up to discharge quarries in Sandrancourt. The work is carried out by RATP (Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens).
Annual tonnage - 470,000 t of excavation materials and 100,000 t of bricks.
The waterway route is of 130 km by the Seine river and St-Denis canal, which means 2.5 days. The project provides for reduction of 15,000 trucks on 140 km road.
1,300 t of excavation materials evacuated each day on 3 boats, instead of trucks passing through urban areas. Reduction of CO2 emissions - 1,650 tonnes of CO2.
Vitry-sur-Seine, a terminal specializing in evacuation of excavation materials from construction site of Grand Express, new line of municipal transport
New city port is to appear in Paris in 2016 within the framework of the city’s river network development. A terminal will be built in the nearest time in a suburb to the South-East of Paris. An agreement has been signed by local authorities, Port de Paris authorities, Voies navigables de France and state company EDF.
The site selected for the new port is strategically significant as Vitry-sur-Seine on the Seine River is a large transport hub with a well developed network of railways and roads servicing numerous industrial enterprises including two TPPs.
New intermodal terminal will be located in Ardoines near the railway terminal. The river port is aimed at reduction of trucks in the city as it will partially take over industry and construction materials.
Supply of construction materials to Point P Paris stores
Supply of pallets with construction materials (facing stone, cement etc.) to Point P Paris stores in Paris, Charenton and Asnieres sur Seine
Annual volume - 50,000 t.
To deliver pallets with construction materials, Point P uses two barges, Andromeda (1,800 t) and Freedom (1,200 t) with weekly rotation. Freedom delivers facing stone from Montreau Fault Yonne while Andromeda services stores in the northern part of Ile-de-France in the first half of each week and the southern part of the region in the second part.
Number of trucks avoided – 2,000 trucks per year, CO2 emissions reduced by 220 t annually. Reduction of extra costs – EUR 36,250 per year.
Creation of a multifunctional distribution center Paris Austerlitz (L’hotel logistique d’Austerlitz)
A multifunctional distribution center Paris Austerlitz is underway. The project implies the construction of a three-level complex with total area of 6,000 sqm intended for pre-distribution preparation of goods (books, magazines, textile, drinks, materials for home arts, products for restaurants etc.
The purpose of this project is to increase the amount of goods delivered by river and other environmentally friendly transport within the city limits.
Participation in development of urban logistic distribution platform of La Chapelle International
Logistic company Sogaris Paris has increased its capital by EUR 110 mln having signed in September 2014 an agreement with the Port de Paris and Caisse des Dépôts on investments into the project on construction of an urban logistic center La Chapelle International in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
Each of the two new partners will own a 22.5-pct share of the branch.
Apart from the financial participation, Port de Paris is set to develop efficient partnership with Sogaris Paris to ensure international flow of goods “at the last kilometer”.
According to the company materials, total area of the distribution center is to exceed 40,000 square meters including underground storage and offices.
This logistic platform is not typical for Paris from the geographical point of view. The goods will be delivered to La Chapelle International by railway from the river port Bruyères-sur-Oise (Val-d’Oise) some 60 km north of Paris. Another innovation is the use of a rotating frame to transfer goods directly to the trucks without loading/unloading operations.