The development of the port of Rotterdam: transport to the hinterland by the Betuweroute

Rotterdam is at the moment a very important harbour; it is the gateway to Europe. Because of that it is important to the Dutch and European economy. To maintain its position the government decided to improve the hinterland connections by building the Betuweroute. In the Netherlands the discussion strengthened if it is necessary to build the track. This report will deal with the question if the carriers will use the track, because the building of the track is only useful if the utility is good. Because the Betuweroute is a solution for a future problem the conclusion is based on forecasts. The Rotterdam Municipal Port Management expects the road haulage to and from the harbour to grow between 66 and 141% between 1995 and 2020. This means that in the best case the traffic will increase with ''just" four truck loads per minute per direction plus the growth of the other industry of the Netherlands. The capacity of the road network is not high enough to deal with this demand. To prevent that the roads will congest, the government wants to achieve a shift of road haulage to rail transport and inland shipping. The government will do this by charging road transport, which will make inland shipping and rail more interesting for carriers. Rail transport and inland shipping are additional modes of transport. This means that not just one of the two can handle the demand shifted from road haulage. The capacity of inland shipping is high enough to deal in part with the extra demand, but the capacity of the rail network is not. The capacity has to be increased. The best solution to do this is the Betuweroute. This means that it is necessary to build the Betuweroute to maintain the attainability of the port of Rotterdam and the other industry of the Netherlands. The carriers will have to use it as an alternative for road haulage and in some fields inland shipping