Container Railfreight Services in North‐west Europe: Diversity of Organizational Forms in a Liberalizing Environment

Abstract

The institutional environment of rail transport has changed as a result of recent European directives, but the changes have taken different forms from one country to another. In the case of international maritime chains, the development of door‐to‐door services makes inland haulage from the loading and discharging ports extremely important, and it highlights the need to reshape the rail freight industry. This paper analyses the degree of involvement of different actors drawn from the maritime industry in developing and commercializing rail services in the changing regulatory environment. Several maritime operators, shipping lines, port‐handling companies and port authorities have been involved in some container rail services since the early days of liberalization. Their commitments take very different forms, however. Whereas contracts are mainly used for the provision of service, particularly for train haulage, integration by means of shareholding or creating subsidiaries or joint ventures is used for marketing. Important differences between France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands are detailed. In the latter two countries, there is more involvement in the provision of rail services. Marketing rail services appear to be the main strategic issue for the maritime operators in all four countries

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Professor Brian Slack (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) for advice and Jean Debrie (INRETS), our colleague in a larger project on port dynamics, who also drew the rail services maps.

Notes

1. There are many factors determining a port’s competitive position, including physical conditions. Cargo availability, however, must be regarded as one of the most critical.

2. Merchant haulage means inland transport is the responsibility of shippers or freight forwarders. Carrier haulage means the shipping line is responsible for inland transport.

3. At the end of 2003, RFF had received five path requirements from foreign railways companies.

4. An intermodal operator is a company that sells rail service for containers and therefore often manages terminals, but does not haul trains. The company that hauls trains is termed ‘railway companies’ in this paper.

5. This kind of classification has been developed by Williamson (1991) and Ménard (2002).

6. P&O–Nedlloyd has contracted for the transport of 220 000 TEU trains per annum; Maersk for 100 000 containers (approximately 140 000 TEUs).

7. Pre‐tax profit: £4.4 million for 2000/1 and £10.8 million for 2002/3.

8. Interviews with shipping lines in Liverpool, March 2003.

9. GB Rail freight provides a dedicated train for one shipping line customer, MSC, but it only provides rolling stock and traction.

10. Partly due to the European directive concerning working time.

11. In 2001, 65% of Freightliner turnover was ‘under contract’, which means that at maximum, 35% of the capacity was available on the spot market.