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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Evaluation of Potential Impact of Logistics Centres on Rail Freight Sector in Turkey

In the European Union countries, while almost 50% of total freight transportation is realized via road, it is followed by maritime with 33%, railway with 12%. On the other hand, there is a major problem in the modal distribution of freight transportation systems in Turkey such that approximately 90% of transported by road, followed by 5% by railway and another 5% by maritime. The main reasons behind this situation include a) advantage of door-to door service and b) improvements in the capacity of vehicles, c) the safety issues and d) problems in supply chain management. Thus, it is difficult for other transportation modes to compete with road transport especially in short distances. On the other hand, the type of the cargo (bulk, containers etc.) and nature of the transportation (such as domestic versus international) are critical aspects affecting mode choice preferences in freight; thus, locations of freight origin-destination must be considered in freight demand forecasting (such as locations of ports, industrial zones, etc.). Following the persistent policy recommendations to increase rail freight shares (5%), there have been major efforts in two directions in freight sector: i) development of the logistics villages and ii) reform in rail freight sector, which has started in 2014 legislatively and put into action in 2017. Concept of logistics villages (recently called centers) has been raised first in 2005, for which a master plan was prepared in (2019) by the Ministry of Transportation. These centers are primarily designed to meet logistics needs in a modern, technological and economic way; and which are closely located to Organized Industrial Zones (OIZ) and encourage more intermodal transportation between rail, road and maritime system. Since the first logistics center in Samsun (2007), 10 more logistics centers have been put into operation today; there are 12 more planned centers. Railway reform process was started in 2008 with harmonization policies in the EU accession. The goal was to open Turkish railway sector for competition by restructuring it as railway infrastructure management (i.e. building new railway lines and connections, ensuring efficient management of the railway traffic) and railway operations (i.e. freight and passenger transportation, logistics services) as two different parties. As of 2017, the rail freight sector was opened to private sector, which is expected to increase demand as well as intermodal transportation between rail and road. This study aims to investigate the intermodal potential that can be created in the rail freight transportation by both reform in railway sector and logistics villages. First the spatial distribution of the rail freight demand around the logistics centers will be determined based on the full commodity flow data for the years 2011-2019 (which includes 6 years before and the first two year of the reform). The analysis will be further detailed in terms of materials transported in cities around the logistic centers to evaluate the potential of intermodal freight connection between the rail and road. Characteristics of the current rail movement around the centers and the feasible distances based on the literature will be evaluated for the intermodal transport options around logistics centers and policy recommendations on a more efficient use of intermodal connections will be given.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Bibliography; Figures; Tables;
  • Pagination: 14p
  • Monograph Title: European Transport Conference 2020

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01766116
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Feb 26 2021 9:59AM