Contribute to shifting the yearly increase of international road freight to short sea shipping, rail and inland waterway. This means 12 billion tonne-kilometres shift per year.
TIMEFRAME: 2003 - 2010
BUDGET FOR 2003-2007: 115 million EUR
FUNDING: Marco Polo offers funding for 3 types of actions:
Start-up aid for new services in the non-road freight market. 30% of the costs of setting-up a new service may be co-funded, minimum of 1 million EUR.
International dimension.
After a maximum of three years of funding, these actions should be viable on their own. Their goal is to maximize traffic shift in order to reach the modal shift objectives of the programme.
Actions are more ambitious than modal shift actions: they should tackle existing structural market barriers, which hinder the further development of non-road freight services. One example would be the setting up of motorways of the sea or high-quality international rail freight services, managed through a one-stop shop. These actions should change the way non-road freight transport is conducted in Europe. Limited in time - should lead to viable non- road freight services after 4 years. The maximum aid level is 35%, minimum 3 million EUR.
Trans-European dimension
Examples
Motorways of the sea
International non-stop railway services.
High speed freight trains on international routes.
High quality well integrated inland waterway services.
Improving the inland waterway sector.
"Rolling motorways" or "Swimming motorways" (especially in ecologically sensitive regions).
Pools for tri-modally-compatible intermodal rolling units
Reliable transport and logistics information systems.
Such actions will not lead to immediate changes in the market, but are nevertheless useful in improving co-operation and sharing know-how in an increasingly complex transport and logistics industry. Costs will be reimbursed up to 50%.Miniumum 500 000 EUR.
Principal fields:
Improving procedures and methods in sea and inland ports
Co-operation between railways and inland waterway.
New co- operation and capacity management models in rail
Adapting procedures and methods in transport systems to meet today's logistics requirements
European training centres.
Actions to increase the demand for non- road transport.
Actions aiming to improve shippers' understanding of intermodal freight transport .
