Possibilities of creating intermodal transport hubs based on available railway transport infrastructure – the case of the Greater Poland Voivodeship.
European concepts for building a network of logistics centers from the early 1990s assumed the creation of national intermodal logistics networks, whose nodal points were intermodal logistics hubs in the form of logistics centers with container terminals operating on their premises, providing transshipment services for combined transport operators. The authors of these concepts aimed for intermodal logistics hubs to be evenly distributed across the country. They were located both where production and distribution activities were concentrated, and in places where the presence of a logistics center was intended to stimulate economic development by “attracting” companies from various industries through the attractiveness of the logistics service offer. The implementation of such concepts required significant public financial resources, necessary for the construction of basic infrastructure: acquiring and preparing real estate, building container terminals, sidings, and access roads, as well as adjusting the legislative sphere in such a way that it would be possible for public sector institutions to participate in public-private investment projects and to involve public funds and private capital in their implementation. In current national conditions, similar concepts are doomed to failure because they require the creation of an appropriate implementation program, legal conditions, and the allocation of substantial financial resources, which has not been done. The situation is also different compared to previous years in terms of the availability of modern warehouse space. Initiating programs for the construction of logistics centers in past years, their implementers aimed for new warehouse facilities, built due to the high demand for such space, to be created within the logistics centers.
In European countries that led to the creation of a network of logistics centers, the effect of concentrating modern, large-scale warehouse facilities in the immediate vicinity of container terminals, built in parallel with the preparation of real estate for warehouse facilities, was achieved. The lack of similar actions in Poland led to a different situation. Many new warehouse facilities were built in various places that, from the point of view of urban planning, should be considered accidental, or formed clusters of such facilities near main roads without access to railway infrastructure. Subsequent warehouse facilities are being built in a similar way. Since there is still no program for building a national network of logistics centers, efforts should be made to increase the intermodality of the current shape of the national logistics network through the development of existing and the construction of new container terminals, which would complement the logistics network, thereby enabling an increase in intermodal transport carried out as part of logistics services. Especially since Poland still has one of the largest railway transport infrastructure networks in Europe.
Assumptions of the concept
This concept for building a network of container terminals assumes the use of two types of intermodal transport hubs for this purpose:
1. Container Terminals (CT) – being hubs of a permanent nature, meeting the basic technical requirements for this type of facility, that is:
• possessing, among other things, 2 tracks with a length of at least 650 m each, used for transshipment of intermodal loading units
• equipped with a loading area with a durable surface, enabling transshipment using transshipment equipment: cranes and mobile equipment
• possessing storage yards for short-term storage of full containers and long-term storage of empty containers
• equipped with infrastructure and a communication system as well as an organizational system enabling the provision of services for many independent intermodal transport operators.
2. Container Transshipment Points (CTP) – being facilities created on an ad-hoc basis for the needs of specific users – recipients of intermodal loading units. Points possessing the following features:
• having at least one track for transshipment, allowing for the handling of a full train set or a part thereof
• possessing a durable surface or one made of prefabricated elements, enabling transshipment using mobile cranes
• possessing storage yards for short-term storage of full and empty containers
• generally serving one intermodal transport operator.
The article comes from the “Logistyka” magazine 5/2008.