Inland Waterway Transport in Aggregate and Other Rock Materials Carriage

The importance of inland waterway transport for transport in the EU countries is highlighted. In Western Europe inland waterway transport is perceived as an environment-friendly system offering considerable potential. The carriage of aggregates and construction materials has a large share in the transport structure. In the transport on the Rhine aggregates constitute 15 - 20% of the whole transport on this waterway. In Poland, waterway transport has a marginal importance since its share in the total transport is below 0.5%. In Polish conditions the carriage of aggregates has a significant share in the total inland waterway transport. On domestic routes the share of aggregate carriage amounts to 50 - 80%. However, the carriage is over short distances and is connected with extraction of aggregates from the bottom of the waterways. The advantages of waterway transport in comparison with rail transport are demonstrated by means of an analysis of the costs of coal transport on the Oder