Transport Information Group

Everybody knows summer is a “slow” period. Thus we have not been writing a lot in the last couple weeks on Transport Expertise, but we did quite a bit of thinking to improve the services we provide, and to choose what we will write about in the future.

After six month of successful activity, we needed to figure out where to go and why. Also, some organizational questions have been raised, and we needed time to work on certain things like “How to market our work and the website?”, “How to promote the documents we produce?”, “What do the readers want to read about?”, etc.

To answer the last questions, we analyzed the site statistics and decided that we will mainly concentrate on five particular topics that have been interesting most of Transport Expertise visitors, since the website’s opening:

• High Speed Rail;
• Public Transport: infrastructure, rolling stock, operation;
• PPP / Toll Roads / Infrastructures investments;
• Green Logistics / Green Supply Chain; and
• Freight Rail and Waterways.

Also, in order to better integrate all the services we provide, we chose that we will publish directly the Transport Information Group Newsletter from a “transport-expertise.org” email address. The Google Group that we have been using until now will be abandoned. Working on the new tools will however take time, and we hope the new delivery system to be ready by September 2008. We will thus be able to send other materials such as new study released to our subscribers.

Activity will resume at full rhythm in the next couple days; our goal now is to publish two daily articles, one in French at 2:00 PM Paris time (6:00 AM EST), and one in English published at 12:00 PM EST/9:00 AM PST.

We are still working on two studies that will be released soon (delayed because of the previous reasons):

• French Offer in Urban Mobility;
• High Speed Rail in France.

We hope to see you on Transport Expertise in the next couple weeks/months. We thank you for your support, and wait for your feedback and comments.

Matthieu Desiderio, Transport Expertise Editor

Here are the latest US Government Accountability Office (US GAO) reports about transportation, published in June 2008.

• Coast Guard: Strategies for Mitigating the Loss of Patrol Boats Are Achieving Results in the Near Term, but They Come at a Cost and Longer Term Sustainability Is Unknown. GAO-08-660, June 23, 2008 (56 pages).
  http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-08-660
• Federal Aviation Administration: Efforts to Hire, Staff, and Train Air Traffic Controllers Are Generally on Track, but Challenges Remain. GAO-08-908T, June 11, 2008 (15 pages).
  http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-08-908T

Emma Maersk ships are presently the biggest containerships in the world, carrying up to 13,000 TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit)… Not for long! The South Korean Group STX Shipbuilding is working on the design of a 22,000 TEUs cargo… The company, which recently took over 39.2% of Aker Yards capital (European shipbuilder), also announced it will increase the production capacity of its South Korean construction plants (Busan and Jinhae) by 20%, from 50 to 60 ships delivered per year.

This new huge containership will be 450 metres long, 50 metres wide, and might, according to STX Shipbuilding, save as much as 40% of fuel per TEU transported. However the South Korean shipbuilder does not have a client yet for this new kind of boat.

Double the size: is this the way to save money?

These containerships will be almost twice the size of the biggest cargos that are delivered nowadays… I would like to raise one question: is this really the best way to reduce costs, and gas consuption? It is clear that massifying more and more transport flows allows to reduce the “per-TEU” cost but bigger ships (and 22,000 TEUs are “quite bigger”) also need bigger infrastructures: first of all, neither every port authority will be able to welcome such containerships, nor they will be able to invest in infrastructure improvements… It might be necessary to look somewhere elso for costs and fuel expenses reductions. (more…)

What is Rouch Intermodal?

Rouch was created in 1945 by André Rouch. In order to meet a need of transport services from the south of France towards Paris, Rouch started to develop combined transport in 1963, and a partnership was signed with Novatrans (rail operator), in 1967.

Several agencies were settled in Paris, Avignon, and Lille and at the end of the 1980’s, Rouch was bought out by an British company. It allowed the company to develop its international business until July 2000, when Rouch joined SNCF Group. SNCF Participations, a SNCF Group subsidiary that covers all of SNCF-owned companies, now owns 98.96% of the shares (see below for SNCF Participations combined transport companies).

Rouch Intermodal will track its containers

Rouch Intermodal started to equip its containers with a satellite tracking system, and becomes this way the first company to implement such a technology in France. The technology used includes a electronic boxes fixed on the container and power by a lithium battery. (more…)

A request for proposal has been sent at the begining of April 2008 by Marseille-Fos Port Authority (Port Autonome de Marseille) to find a roll-on/roll-off operator to develop new automobiles shipping activity at the harbour basin #3 (Darse 3) in the new Fos-sur-Mer (east of Marseille) terminal.

Asian products import market is particularly targeted by Marseille Port Authority, and their aim is to make the new Fos-sur-Mer terminal the southern Europe point of entry and a storage area for Asian imported goods.

According to Marseille Port Authority officials, the new terminal will allow Marseille port to develop a high value-added activity and to generate employment, with a high expected growth rate. The new terminal will be operated by the winning consortium designated after the call for tenders is closed by the end of 2008. Marseille Port Authority said the operator may be either a merchant marine company, a handling company or a car manufacturer.

References

• Article: Roulier : Un opérateur recherché pour s’implanter à Fos, Mer et Marine, Apr. 11, 2008: here
• Website: Port Autonome de Marseille: here

An announcement from the St. Lawrence Seaway Corporation

The Canadian and U.S. Seaway Corporations are inviting the media to Montreal, Quebec, on Monday, May 5, 2008, to showcase the ballast water inspection process currently in place for the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System. The Seaway Corporations will be joined by other U.S. and Canadian regulatory agencies, including Transport Canada and the United States Coast Guard, that maintain the strict enforcement regime aimed at protecting the Great Lakes from invasive species.

In addition to a brief press conference held at St. Lambert Lock, the point of entry to the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Seaway Corporations will provide media representatives the opportunity to board an international vessel, the M/V FEDERAL KIVALINA, to examine first hand a ballast water inspection being performed by marine inspectors. Reporters will be permitted to photograph/document the inspection process and tour other areas of the ship.

• What: St. Lawrence Seaway Ballast Water Inspection Media Day
  
• When: Monday, May 5, 2008 2:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
  
• Where: St. Lambert Lock, Montreal, Quebec (151, de l’Ecluse Street)

References

• Contact in the USA: Tim Downey, SLSDC, +1 (202) 366-0110
• St. Lawrence Seaway Hosts Ballast Water Inspection Media Day in Montreal
• Great Lakes Seaway System Ballast Water Inspection Program