Multimodal hinterland hubs in the Netherlands. A study of container transhipment terminals in the hinterland of Dutch sea ports (English summary)

Various regions in the Netherlands (referred to as 'white spots') are situated at too great a distance from existing container transhipment terminals. These regions include Weert, Westland, Flevoland, Deventer-Apeldoorn-Zutphen and the Tiel-Ede-Nieuwegein region. There are plans in place in these regions for new terminals. If the plans for new terminals are realised, few white spots will remain.

This report is available in Dutch.

On the regional level, the container transhipment capacity in the Netherlands is currently sufficient to satisfy demand, and this is also the case when taking into account the planned expansions in 2020 and 2030 that will occur in most regions. However, under conditions of high economic growth and a large-scale shift from road transport to transport via railways and inland waterways, future transhipment capacity is no longer sufficient. Ultimately, the European Union’s call for such a shift in transport for long distance loads offers opportunities for developing Dutch transhipment terminals into international transport hubs.

These are some of the conclusions reached in the KiM Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis’ study of the multimodal hubs in the hinterland, which was conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. This research study mapped the current situation for public (accessible to third parties) containers in the Netherlands and the development thereof. This study endeavoured to answer the following key questions: where in the national network is there still a lack of terminals (white spots)? How are transhipment services developing with regard to hinterland hubs? Are certain terminals developing into hubs in the continental transport chain? Based on the analysis, we examined whether there was a lack of terminals, and using future prognoses for container transhipments in the Netherlands, we examined whether there is sufficient transhipment capacity. Finally, we conducted research in order to determine if continental transport is a potential market for these hinterland terminals.