- a highly developed area. The regional transport system belongs to the Western European type. Its frame is formed by highways of latitudinal and meridian directions. The transport networks of individual countries have either a radial (single-center) configuration (France) or a multi-center (). At the intersection of various transport lines, both land and water transport hubs are formed.
Such hubs are, in fact, seaports, serving primarily international transportation.
In terms of transportation distance, Foreign Europe is inferior to Russia, but in terms of the availability of a transport network and traffic intensity, it is far ahead.
The main role in the transportation of goods and passengers is played by road transport (motorways international importance: - Paris -, London - - Vienna - Belgrade - Istanbul, etc.).
Rail transport in Western Europe is declining, while in Eastern Europe it remains the main mode, occupying the first place in the region in terms of traffic volume.
A dense network of railways crosses Foreign Europe in the latitudinal and meridional directions. The main latitudinal highways: Lisbon - Madrid - Paris - Berlin - (further to Minsk and Moscow), London - Paris - Vienna - - Belgrade - Sofia - Istanbul (further on), Paris - Prague (further on to Kyiv). The most important meridional routes: - Brussels - Paris - Madrid - Lisbon, London - Paris - Marseille, Copenhagen - Hamburg - Frankfurt am Main - - Rome, Gdansk - Warsaw - Vienna - Budapest - Belgrade - Athens.
The river transport of the region is well developed due to the presence of waterways with meridional (Rhine) and latitudinal (Danube) directions. The transport significance of the Rhine is especially great, along which 250-300 million tons of cargo are transported per year. A waterway has recently been put into operation, connecting both main waterways of foreign Europe: Rhine - Main - Danube.
Maritime transport is of international importance. In many European countries, the share in the cargo turnover is very high. For example, in, it is - 4/5, and in - 9/10. The seaports serving this type of transport are of great importance: London, Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre, Marseille, Genoa. The largest of them is Rotterdam, whose cargo turnover is about 300 million tons per year and is the largest port in the world. The major ports of Europe have essentially turned into single port-industrial complexes.
Also in foreign Europe pipeline and air transport is developed.
In the second half of the 1990s, a truly grandiose project was drawn up and launched to create a unified European transport network. It provides for the formation of nine transport corridors between Western and Eastern Europe with a total length of 17,000 km. Each corridor will be a multi-highway including both highways and railways, while the Danube Corridor will also be a waterway. Two such corridors will pass through Moscow: Berlin - Warsaw - Minsk - Moscow and Helsinki - - Moscow - Kyiv - Chisinau -.
Foreign Europe is the main center of international tourism. All types of tourism have developed here. As the leading countries of international tourism invariably act
The paths along rivers and lakes greatly facilitated the exploration and development of almost all continents; and to this day they continue to serve both for travel and commercial purposes. Although navigation requirements vary from country to country, a minimum depth of 1.2m is required to allow ships to pass through.
The cost of creating and operating waterways has long been a subject of debate among engineers, economists and politicians. Transportation by water is slower but cheaper than by rail or cars, unless the cost of maintaining the water route is included in the cost of transportation. It is the need for periodic dredging and other hydraulic engineering works that gives ground transportation an advantage. But even with this in mind, they prefer to transport large consignments of raw materials, such as coal or oil, ore or grain, by water.
The prevalence of waterways.
European rivers play an important role as waterways, due to the ease of communication and high population density in Europe. The Rhine, Danube and Volga have been in use for centuries. In the lowlands of central Europe, rivers and canals carry more goods than roads or railroads. An extensive network of canals unites the rivers here into a single water transport system. Channels have been built that allow ocean-going ships to enter ports such as Antwerp and Rotterdam. In Europe by water transport mainly large consignments of heavy and voluminous raw materials. Important waterways in other parts of the world include the Amazon River in South America, the Nile in Africa, and the Yangtze in Asia.
The United States has an extensive river network which, with regular hydraulic work, provides many shipping routes. The United States and Canada have the world's largest shipping traffic on the Great Lakes. From New England to Florida, the Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware, Potomac, James, Savannah, and other rivers, as well as the Delaware, Chesapeake, and other bays, provide river and coastal navigation. On the Pacific coast, excellent ports are established in the San Francisco Bay, as well as on the Sacramento, Columbia and Willamette rivers, in the Puget Sound and its river bays. Nevertheless, more than half of the US inland waterway traffic comes from the Mississippi Basin and the Great Lakes. Hydraulic structures (canals, locks, dams, etc.) made almost the entire Mississippi and Ohio basin navigable. The Mississippi system is connected by rivers and canals of the Illinois system to Lake Michigan. The importance of the Great Lakes for transport increased after the completion in 1959 of a sea shipping route along the St. Lawrence River, which allowed ships with a large draft to leave the lakes into the Atlantic Ocean.
The network of canals in the states of New York and Illinois, as well as the Coastal Canal, which runs parallel to almost the entire coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, significantly increase the length of American waterways.
ocean routes.
Modern ocean liner routes tend to follow great circle arcs of the globe that pass through points of departure and arrival. So, although Yokohama is almost on the same parallel with San Francisco, the shortest route along the arc of a great circle passes to the north, near the Aleutian Islands. The shortest distance from New York to Liverpool (England) is near the Great Newfoundland Bank. Today, there are seven main ocean routes:
1. The busiest North Atlantic route connects the ports of the Atlantic coast of America from Canada to Florida with the ports of Western Europe.
2. The second busiest route passes through the Suez Canal. Here the paths converge from Europe, from the Atlantic coast of North and Central America to East Africa, India and other countries of South and Southeast Asia. The shortest route from Europe to Australia, China and Japan also passes through the Suez Canal; however, routes to this part of the globe from the East Coast of the United States and from the Caribbean are shorter via the Panama Canal. Until now, many cargo routes between Western Europe and Australia pass around the Cape of Good Hope. The route through the Suez Canal is 1,600 km shorter, but due to the high tolls of the canal, the longer route is cheaper. In addition, the largest ships cannot pass through the Suez Canal.
3. The third busiest route is the route through the Panama Canal. This route noticeably shortens the route from the ports of the east coast of the United States and Western Europe to the west coast of North and South America. From New York to San Francisco through the Strait of Magellan, the distance is 21,134 km, and through the Panama Canal 8,467 km. From New York to Valparaiso in Chile through the Strait of Magellan 13,483 km, and through the Panama Canal 7020 km. The distance from Liverpool to Valparaiso across the canal is shorter by 2478 km. The line of equal distances from New York through the Suez and Panama Canals passes near Hong Kong and Manila, and from England - east of Australia and Japan. Thus, routes through the Suez Canal from Europe to all Asian countries and Australia are shorter.
4. West African routes connect the Atlantic ports of Europe and both Americas with the western and southeastern coasts of Africa. This is a short route from the Atlantic shores of North and South America, as well as the north and west of Europe to Australia and New Zealand. Supertankers with oil from the countries of the Middle East to Europe follow the same route.
5. South American routes connect Europe and the US Atlantic coast with Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. The significance of this route is growing due to the increase in cargo turnover with these South American countries.
6. North Pacific routes link the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada with Japan and China. Most of these routes are in great circles near the Aleutian Islands, but some passenger and cargo ships call at Honolulu, which increases the distance, for example, from San Francisco to Yokohama by 1600 km.
7. In the South Pacific, there are two routes of interest to the US: one through Honolulu, Samoa, and the Fiji Islands, and the other through Tahiti and the Society Islands. Both routes link the US Pacific coast with New Zealand and Australia, as well as, through the Panama Canal, the North Atlantic countries with Australia and the islands of the South Pacific.
Types of ships.
Most of the ships are designed in accordance with the requirements of navigation (mode of navigation) and for a certain type of cargo. Some riverboats are intended for passengers only, more ships are used for the transport of passengers and cargo (cargo-passenger), but the bulk of the ships are specialized in the transport of goods. There are four main types of sea vessels: 1) cargo ships (dry cargo, tankers, combined, etc.) that carry out individual orders or operate on regular routes; 2) cargo-passenger ships; 3) high-speed passenger liners with two or three classes for passengers, as well as post and luggage compartments; 4) a small number of comfortable high-speed vessels designed only for passengers and mail.
Foreign Europe occupies a prominent place in the global cargo and passenger turnover. Its regional transport system is a complex interweaving of almost all types of transport routes. It is customary to attribute to its characteristic features: the complexity of the configuration, a very high density of the network, a large share of mixed traffic, and the widespread development of transit traffic. Until the early 1990s, when the integration processes in the western and eastern parts of Europe proceeded largely in isolation from each other, the development of transport also led to the formation of two almost independent concentrations - the western (capitalist) and eastern (socialist), although, of course, linked to each other. But then, when the ideas of the “European home” prevailed, objects began to develop common European transport infrastructure.
It is precisely such objects - highways and railways, navigable rivers and canals, pipelines, seaports and international airports - that now form the backbone of the pan-European transport infrastructure, determining its configuration. It is to them that attention is drawn not only to individual countries, but also to international general economic and transport organizations, especially within the framework of the UN and the European Union. As a result, in this important area of the economy, many large-scale projects have been developed and, in part, have already begun to be implemented.
Integration processes had a great influence on the development of European railway transport. Until the early 1990s. they affected mainly Western Europe, where international rail expresses began to operate in many directions (Fig. 37).
Figure 37 schematically shows the directions of movement of 20 such express trains. We also add that each of them has its own name: Express No. 2 Amsterdam - Munich is called Rembrandt, Express No. 5 Frankfurt - Paris - Goethe, Express No. 8 Hamburg - Milan - Roland, Express No. 14 Amsterdam - Paris - "Brabant", Express No. 20 Basel - Milan - "Gothard". To this scheme, we need to add a few more express trains coming from Western Europe in the direction of Istanbul; they all usually have the prefix "Orient" ("East") in their name. Figure 37 allows you to identify the main end points and main interchange transport hubs, which are the most in Germany (Duisburg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Würzburg, Hannover, Nuremberg, Munich). In most of the directions marked on the map, the intensity of traffic is very high. For example, up to 350 trains run along the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Koblenz, and about 300 trains per day run along the right bank of the Rhine.
Since the early 1990s The reconstruction of the railway network is proceeding in two main directions. This is, firstly, the already described creation of high-speed highways on the main sections of passenger traffic. And this, secondly, is the unification of the railways of Western and Central-Eastern Europe.
It can be added that quite significant differences between the northern and southern groups of countries also historically developed over the vast territory of the latter subregion. In Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, railway construction was carried out mainly as early as the 19th century, and they are characterized by a generally dense railway network. In the Balkan countries, the formation of such a network began later, and as a result, its density turned out to be less. Therefore, during the existence of a planned economy in this subregion of Europe, railway construction took on a large scale here. Examples include the construction of the first railways in Albania, the construction railway Belgrade - Bar (port on the Adriatic Sea) in the SFRY.
Rice. 37. International train express in Western Europe
Western Europe is ahead of Central-Eastern and in development road transport. In this subregion, with relatively short distances and, moreover, in the conditions of first weakening and then the abolition of customs barriers in most countries, the advantages of road transport were especially revealed, which outstripped all other modes in terms of growth rates. In general terms, an international network of motorways with a common numbering has already been created, the basis of which is motorways (Fig. 38).
In Germany, the network of autobahns has the form of a "lattice" with intersecting lines of latitudinal and meridional directions, and almost all of them continue beyond the borders of this country. Italy is dominated by lines of meridional direction, the main of which - the so-called "freeway of the Sun" - connects Milan with the southern tip of the peninsula, passing through Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples. France, as one would expect, is characterized by a radial layout of the road network. One of the main highways ("South") connects Paris with Lyon, Marseille and Nice, the other ("East") - with Strasbourg. Then they continue respectively in Italy and Germany.
The countries of Western Europe have also reached a much higher level of motorization (Fig. 106 in Book I) than the states of Central and Eastern Europe, where until recently the development of road transport lagged noticeably behind, and the construction of modern highways began only in Czechoslovakia and Poland. Therefore, in the 1990s. Great attention has been paid to the development of the road network in the countries of this subregion, especially the development of trans-European communications in the directions North-South and West-East. An example is the project for the construction of the North-South highway, designed primarily to serve tourist flows (Fig. 39).
According to the project, adopted back in 1982, this highway starts in the Polish port of Gdansk, where autotourists from Scandinavia get on ferries. Then it passes through the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to Athens and Istanbul with branches to the Adriatic and Black Seas. In Istanbul, two bridges across the Bosphorus can lead to the flow of cars into Turkey. Thus, ten countries are expected to participate in the construction of this highway with a total length of more than 10,000 km. The alignment should include many sections of existing roads, reconstructed in accordance with the standards of the motorway. However, the events of recent years in Central-Eastern Europe, including the situation in the former SFRY, appear to significantly delay the implementation of this project.
In the 1990s, in the context of a completely new geopolitical situation in Europe, the strengthening of pan-European integration processes within the framework of a single European space, another project to create a pan-European road network - EVROVIA, covering the entire territory of Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals, became much more important. Designed for 15 years, it provides for the transformation of 58 thousand km of existing roads into modern European-class roads.
Integration processes have also affected the system inland waterways Europe. Their total length is 100 thousand km, including 85 thousand km of navigable rivers and 15 thousand km of navigable canals. Half of these routes are located within the CIS countries, the other half - within foreign Europe. Its main international river arteries have long been the Rhine and Danube. From this it clearly follows the expediency of connecting these two rivers with each other with the help of the "bundle" Rhine - Main - Danube.
The first attempt to create such a "bundle" was made at the end of the 8th century. Emperor of the Franks Charlemagne. At one time, Napoleon Bonaparte and Johann Wolfgang Goethe thought about it. But only the Bavarian king Ludwig I succeeded in 1836-1846. connect the Main with the Danube. True, the canal he built allowed only small vessels (with a carrying capacity of up to 120 tons) to pass through, for the advancement of which they used horse traction. In addition, a railway boom soon began in Western Europe, and the Ludwig Canal began to experience strong competition from the railways.
Rice. 38. Highways in foreign Europe
A new, modern project arose in Germany back in the 20s. 20th century As a kind of preparatory stage for such construction, one can consider work to improve navigation conditions on the Rhine and especially on the Main. As a result, by the beginning of the 90s. 20th century 34 hydropower plants were built on the Main, which now provide a minimum depth of 2.5 m in the section of its flow from Bamberg to the mouth. At the same time, major hydraulic engineering work began on the Danube. With the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power stations in its upper reaches, and then a large hydroelectric complex in the Iron Gates gorge on the Romanian-Yugoslav section of the river, it was possible to make it accessible for almost year-round navigation. Now ships with a carrying capacity of 1.5 thousand tons and a draft of 2.5 m can pass along the Danube.
Rice. 39. Trans-European Highway North-South Project
The connecting link between them was the Main-Danube Canal (Fig. 40), the construction of which began as early as 1962. The canal is 171 km long. Of these, 107 km fall on the northern (Main) slope of the watershed and 64 km on the southern (Danube) slope. The height difference is 243 m and is overcome with the help of 16 locks (11 on the northern and 5 on the southern slope). The section of the route between the cities of Bamberg and Nuremberg was put into operation in 1972, and the canal was completely completed in 1992. Self-propelled vessels with a carrying capacity of 1350 tons, a length of 80 m, a width of 9.5 m and a draft of 2.5 m. After increasing the possible draft to 2.7 m, it will be able to pass ships with a carrying capacity of 1500 tons.
Rice. 40. Rhine-Main-Danube waterway
From now on, both main river routes of foreign Europe - the Rhine (over 300 million tons of cargo per year) and the Danube (over 100 million tons) - are interconnected and form a single waterway with a length of 3.5 thousand km from Rotterdam to Sulina at the mouth of the Danube. A motor vessel with a carrying capacity of 1350 tons covers this distance in 11 days, and in the opposite direction, against the current, in 17. However, such a through route may be important only for tourist cruises and part of the cargo, while their main flows are limited to certain sections of this waterway. way.
In connection with the Danube navigation, it is also important to mention that in Romania in 1984 the construction of the long-planned Danube-Black Sea canal was completed (Fig. 41). This channel has a length of 64 km, a width of 70-120 m and a depth of 7 m and can pass vessels with a deadweight of 7000 tons, shortening the route to the Black Sea (compared to the route through the Danube Delta) by 240 km, and to Constanta by 400 km. The maximum capacity of the channel is 75 million tons of cargo per year.
After the connection of the Rhine with the Danube, the press began to discuss project of the Great European Ring, which would allow for the transportation of goods and passengers along a single closed water route: St. Petersburg - Volga-Baltic - Volga - Volga-Don - Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov - Black Sea - Danube - Main - Rhine - North Sea - Baltic Sea - St. Petersburg. Continuous transportation of goods along it can be ensured subject to the operation of vessels of the "river - sea" type.
Rice. 41. Danube Canal - Black Sea in Romania
We add that for a very long time there have been projects of waterways connecting the Danube with the Oder (the distance between Szczecin and Sulina is 2800 km) and with the Elbe (between Hamburg and Sulina 3000 km). Projects have also been developed for waterways connecting the Danube with the Adriatic Sea along the Sava and with the Aegean Sea along the Morava and Vardar. The same can be said about the project to connect the Rhine with the Rhone and create a single waterway from Rotterdam to Marseille. However, their implementation requires such huge investments that the states concerned have not yet been able to find. In addition, there are many additional border, customs, and broader general political problems.
However, for all the significance of the listed projects in recent times projects for the implementation of the so-called transport corridors between West and East Europe. It is these corridors that will play the main role in the processes of pan-European integration, in the creation of a pan-European transport system. The decision on such corridors was made in 1994 at the Second Pan-European Conference on Transport, where nine of them were outlined. They should cover all types of transport in the territory of 24 countries. Their total length will be almost 17 thousand km, and the commissioning dates are scheduled for the period up to 2010 (Table 15, Fig. 42). Each transport corridor should be polyhighway, i.e., to combine parallel lines of roads and railways, and sometimes pipelines, waterways and power lines.
Table 15
TRANSPORT CORRIDORS BETWEEN WESTERN AND EAST EUROPE
Rice. 42. Transport corridors between the West and the East of Europe (according to O. A. Volkov)
As shown in Table 15 and Figure 42, Corridor I will have highest value for the Baltic States and Poland. Corridor III will link the Western European transport system via Berlin with the transport systems of Poland and Ukraine. Corridor IV will run from Central Europe to the Balkans with branches to the Black Sea (to Constanta and Istanbul) and to the Aegean Sea (to Thessaloniki). Corridor V will connect the Adriatic through the territories of Hungary and Slovakia with the western part of Ukraine. Corridor VI will have a meridional direction and will run from the port of Gdansk to Slovakia. Corridor VII can be called the Danube Corridor, since it will link the six Danubian states (from Austria to Romania) using both land highways and the Danube waterway. Corridor VIII should connect the Adriatic and Black Sea and pass through the territories of Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria.
For Russia, corridors II and IX are of particular importance.
The second transport corridor Berlin - Poznan - Warsaw - Minsk - Moscow will lead to a greater unification of the transport system of Russia (as well as the systems of Belarus and Poland) with the pan-European one. It must also be taken into account that access to Berlin also means access to Brussels, Paris, London. On the route of this corridor, work is already underway to improve roads and create a high-speed railway, which will reduce the time for trains between Moscow and Berlin from 19:30 to 12:00. with different gauges in Russia and Belarus (1524 mm) and in Poland and the rest of Europe (1435 mm).
The ninth transport corridor is the longest and has the most complex configuration. This is a corridor of meridional direction, which can be considered as a new, dating back to the 21st century, route “from the Varangians to the Greeks”. Indeed, it leads from the shores of the Baltic (Helsinki, St. Petersburg) to the coast of the Black (Odessa) and Aegean (Alexandroupolis) seas. At the same time, one of the routes of Corridor IX should pass through Kyiv, and the other through Moscow. Later, a decision was made to extend Corridor IX from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod.
Both II and IX transport corridors should be continued in the future, entering the International transport corridors "West-East" and "North-South" as components. In the first case, this means going from Nizhny Novgorod with its new terminal to the Trans-Siberian Railway, through which 500,000 containers per year can be transited between Western Europe and the Far East. In the second, the continuation of the transport highway, first to Astrakhan, and then to
Dagestan, Azerbaijan with further access to Iran and the countries of the Middle East. At the same time, it should be taken into account that Russia has already begun to implement the agreement with European Union on the opening of their inland waterways for the entry of foreign ships. In addition, Russia proposed to European countries to create an international water transport corridor Volga-Don-Danube with access to the sea lines of the Caspian Sea.
Let us also pay attention to the fact that Europe has already received a good transport connection with Asia Minor thanks to two modern road bridges across the Bosphorus, each of which passes more than 20 thousand cars a day. And soon, perhaps, she will get a more convenient connection with Africa. Back in 1995, Spain and Morocco decided to build a railway tunnel (similar to the Eurotunnel) through the Strait of Gibraltar. Its length should be 39 km, of which 20 km will pass under the bottom of the strait at a depth of 100 m.
features of the development of inland waterways in Europe
I. I. Eglit,
doc. tech. Sci., Head of the Department of Transport Systems Management State University sea and river fleet (GUMRF) them. adm. S. O. Makarova
A. V. Galin,
cand. tech. Sci., Associate Professor, Department of Transport Systems Management, GUMRF n.a. adm. S. O. Makarova
The intensive functioning of water transport can significantly reduce the load on the overall transport network of the country. Western European experience shows how river vessels can be effectively used for regular scheduled transportation of goods.
Inland waterways (GDP) of Europe play a significant role in the European transport system. This is explained by the fact that water transportation is quite cheap, reliable, safe and environmentally friendly, which corresponds to the wishes of cargo owners and governments of European countries. Inland water transport (IWT) plays a positive role at the global level as well, linking European states together and taking part in international trade. However, despite all the positive factors, its development does not occur at a faster pace than other modes of transport.
The structure of Europe's GDP consists of four main corridors:
Rhine, as the main corridor connecting the port cluster of Northern Europe with the hinterland;
Corridor North - South, including
including rivers and canals in the Netherlands, Belgium and France;
Eastern Corridor covering GDP from Germany to Poland and the Czech Republic;
The southeastern corridor, which includes the Danube, Main and Main-Danube and Danube-Black Sea canals.
Rhine corridor
Among all European countries, the Netherlands has the densest GDP network. It contains the deltas of the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt. The total length of the Dutch GDP is about 5200 km. The Waal River, which connects the Rhine and the port of Rotterdam, is the most important part of the Dutch GDP.
Waterways have played a key role for many years in transport process in the Netherlands. Of all the goods crossing the Dutch border, more than 60% are transported by barges. In 2010 this type of transport
Table 1. Transportation of goods by various modes of transport in Western Europe, million ton-km
1980 1990 2000 2010
Motor transport 423 653.8 1023 1269.2
Railway transport 292.5 269.3 254 246
GDP 107.7 115.4 115.4 123
Total 823.8 1028.5 1392.4 1638
more than 234 million tons of cargo was transported, of which 42% - domestic cargo, 49% - export / import cargo and 9% - transit.
From Dutch ports (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Flushing) numerous service lines deliver goods along the Rhine to domestic terminals. They play the role of a kind of river shuttle, connecting ports not only with the Dutch, but also with German, Belgian, French and Austrian inland terminals. The cargo turnover with the Belgian and German terminals is especially intensive, 67% of the Dutch military equipment works in this direction.
German GDP includes about 7,500 km of waterways that connect seaports with the most developed hinterlands and industrial centers of the country. In fact, 56 out of 74 major German production centers connects river transport with each other and with the sea.
AT total 20% of the transported cargo accounts for GDP, which is comparable to railway transportation. In 2010, 229 million tons were transported within Germany's GDP: 30% - domestic cargo, 10% - transit and 60% - import-export cargo. The main water artery of Germany is also the Rhine, through which two-thirds of the volume of cargo transported by GDP passes. Bulk cargoes are the main cargoes transported by water transport, and account for 88%, but recently there has been a noticeable increase in containerized cargoes. In 2010, about 750,000 TEU were transported within the German GDP, which is 14% more than in 1998.
Corridor North - South
The Scheldt River is actively used in the north-south direction between the Netherlands and Belgium, connecting the two main European ports - Rotterdam and Antwerp. The Meuse River links the Dutch industrial regions and cities in eastern Belgium and northern France. About 32% work in this direction
barge transport in the Netherlands.
The Belgian GDP is about 1513 km of waterways. Almost all major centers in Belgium are interconnected by a system of waterways (Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Liege, etc.). The waterways passing through Belgium form the main part of the trans-European water system, these include the Albert Canal, the Ghent-Terneusen Canal, the Scheldt-Rhine junction, the Brussels Canal and the Scheldt.
Belgian GDP turnover in 2001 amounted to 120 million tons: 12% - domestic cargo turnover, 12% - transit, 32% - export cargo and 44% - import cargo. As elsewhere, the main type of cargo transported by GDP is bulk cargo, but there is also a noticeable increase in the container flow, which is 15%. In total, Belgian GDP transports about 20% of the total volume of goods.
In France, the IWW network is most actively exploited east of the Le Havre - Marseille line, where the main navigation channels and rivers are located. In terms of cargo turnover, France's GDP lags significantly behind the GDP of countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The characteristics of the main rivers and canals of France allow the use of only small vessels, the length of which is 38.5 m, width - 5.5 m (respectively, with a carrying capacity of 250350 tons, depending on the draft). Only a small part of the inland routes is suitable for the operation of ships with a carrying capacity of 3000 tons. They are concentrated mainly in the north-west of the country: Rhine and Rhone, Seine (from Le Havre to Paris), Moselle (from Nancy to the border with Germany). The total volume of goods transported by weapons and military equipment in France in 2010 amounted to 56.57 million tons.
East corridor
Since the beginning of the 90s of the last century, the volume of trade and trade between Poland and Western Europe has increased significantly. This was mainly due to road and rail transport. VVT participation
in commodity circulation is small, Poland's GDP is connected through the Mittelland Canal and the Elbe with the water system of Western Europe. The Order River, the border between Poland and Germany, can be seen as the south-north axis of the water system. The Warta River is an east-west axis and connects Berlin with the industrial centers of Poznań and Warsaw. Through the system of Polish rivers, Western Europe is connected to the Dnieper. Polish waterways are generally shallow and allow the use of ships with a draft of no more than 2.5 m.
The Czech Republic has about 300 km of GDP suitable for the transport of goods. These include a part of the Laba (Elbe) River with a tributary of the Vltava, which are also interconnected by several channels. The average depth of the rivers is 1.8-2.5 m. There are plans to make the Morava river navigational and connect it to the Danube.
The volume of traffic in terms of GDP is small and amounts to 1.3 million tons per year, which is approximately 8.5% of the cargo turnover.
Southeast Corridor
The Danube has always played an important role in the water system of Central and Southern Europe. Originating in Austria and following through many countries, the river flows into the Black Sea. In 1992, a canal connected a tributary of the Rhine, the river Main, to the Danube. This is how the trans-European waterway with a length of 3503 km was created.
The Danube flows through Austria for 322 km through the main ports of Linz and Vienna, then it passes into Slovakia. In 2001, 10.2 million tons were transported along the Danube within Austria.
The Danube flows through Slovakia for 172 km. When the corridor was opened, the ship traffic pattern was partially changed. The main ports of the country are Bratislava and Komarno. Slovakia takes an active part in the Danube Commission in Budapest. Approximately 1 million tons of cargo passes through the GDP of Slovakia, mainly in transit.
In Hungary, the length of the Danube is 324 km, the main ports are Budapest and
Table 2. The ratio of the use of different modes of transport,%
1980 1990 2000 2010
Motor transport 51.4 63.8 73.6 77.5
Railway transport 35.6 24.9 18.1 15.0
VVT 13.0 11.3 8.3 7.5
Baya. Cargo turnover is about 2 million tons per year.
In the future, the Danube follows former countries Yugoslavia for 589 km. The maximum draft of vessels in this section is 2.5 m, which affects the size of the vessels and barges used and is the main limitation in the transport of transit cargo.
Romania is the main Danube country: the river flows through its territory for 1075 km. In Romania, the Danube is divided into two parts: the Danube River - from Briaz (1075 km) to Braila (171 km), the Danube Sea - from Braila to Sulina (exit to the sea).
The role of GDP in the transport infrastructure of Europe
In table. 1 shows the dynamics of the development of freight transportation in Europe, expressed in ton-kilometers. The data on arms and military equipment shipments show their stability with a slight increase in absolute numbers, which indicates the established routes, types and quantities of cargo.
It is impossible not to notice a significant increase (almost three times) in road transport with a slight decrease in rail transport. Thus, against the backdrop of an increasing freight flow, road transport in Europe is developing at a faster pace and is the main one. This is absolutely natural and can be explained by at least two factors: firstly, the cost of creating an automobile infrastructure is lower than that of a railway and inland waterways; secondly, fixed assets (trucks) are cheaper. Speed, maneuverability, the ability to deliver in small batches also play a role.
Such data is also confirmed by the percentage change in the use of different modes of transport. Over three decades, there has been a percentage increase in the use of vehicles from 51 to 77%, respectively, the share of other modes of transport has decreased.
It is impossible to characterize the entire situation in Europe's GDP with two figures. According to Table. 2, the average level of IWT use in Western European countries is 7%. In reality, this number fluctuates considerably. It is 42% in the Netherlands, 14% in Germany, 13% in Belgium and 10% in Luxembourg.
Vessels pass intensively on the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, Main, Danube and numerous small rivers. GDP plays a key role in the import and export of goods passing through the northwestern ports of Europe. They form a significant part of the transport infrastructure connecting Europe's hinterland and major European ports.
It should also be noted that in Western Europe only six countries have a system of interconnected GDPs: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Approximately one third of the trade turnover between these countries is carried out through GDP.
As already noted, the advantages of this type of transport are environmental friendliness, low cost of transportation, safety compared to land-based alternatives, especially vehicles that also get into congestion and traffic jams. In northwestern Europe, for transportation over distances of 150-200 km, IWT is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to deliver goods.
The foregoing determines that, in many important aspects, IWT is an actual connection between ports and the hinterland, especially in conditions of limited land transport infrastructure. In this case, water transport is not seen as a competitor or alternative to trains and cars, but as an additional opportunity to speed up cargo turnover and reduce the burden on land infrastructure. Relatively short transportation distances make it possible to select efficient water vehicles that meet the requirements of the infrastructure, and the difference in
delivery speed will not be so noticeable and critical.
The disadvantages inherent in this type of transport have limited the area of its further distribution. Customers demand not only fast, but also timely delivery of goods. Unfortunately, in addition to environmental friendliness, reliability (safety) and low price, weapons and military equipment does not have the most important characteristic - the possibility of urgent delivery of goods. This is due to the untimely and inaccurate information on the timing of the provision of the service (vehicle), as well as the physical limitations of the places of loading and unloading and relatively long time delivery.
Moreover, due to the development of logistics services and economic needs, the traditional barge market for the transportation of ore, coal, petrochemical, animal feed is also under pressure from road and rail transport.
There are several reasons for not prioritizing long-distance transport (eg on the river system from the North Sea to the Black Sea). Firstly, there are not many cargoes for these shipments. Secondly, transportation over long distances is very much slower than other modes of transport (road, rail). Thirdly, various conditions and restrictions of the transport infrastructure on a long journey make it necessary to use ships of a minimum size or minimum load that meets the restrictions, which leads to higher costs and inefficiency of transportation. For example, throughout the Danube, the depth varies from 7.5 m to 2.5 m.
The possibility of applying European experience in the operation of Russian GDP
Cargo flows through Russian ports are characterized by two important features. First, the import flow is mainly containerized cargo of consumer goods and finished products, equipment
dovaniya for production. The share of other types of cargo in imports is very small.
Secondly, export cargoes are mainly raw materials transported in bulk, or semi-finished products transported as general cargo in bulk and not yet sufficiently containerized.
The heterogeneity of export and import flows generates an additional burden on the transport infrastructure, since it is impossible to use the same rolling stock for cargo in principle different types. Accordingly, the transport network bears a double load on the delivery of goods.
The plans for the development of the sea port infrastructure of Russia until 2030 include a significant increase in the volume of export traffic, mainly bulk cargo for export, and an additional increase in port capacities, which will create an even more tense situation in the transport infrastructure.
In the climatic aspect, the possibility of exploiting the GDP is limited - from May to October. This, of course, has a negative effect on the creation of permanent logistics schemes with the participation of weapons and military equipment.
In connection with the foregoing, the most interesting aspects of the development of inland water transport should be highlighted. Among them is the more active use of weapons and military equipment as part of the transport infrastructure in servicing large seaports and their connection with inland dry ports. The northwestern ports of Europe, located at the mouths of large rivers or connected with them (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Flushing, Antwerp), actively and successfully use the GDP as part of the transport infrastructure connecting the ports with the hinterland, thereby increasing the throughput of the entire regional transport infrastructure as a whole. The experience of such use would also be of interest to our ports in terms of reducing the load on the common transport network.
An equally important aspect is the involvement of water transport in the logistics schemes for the delivery of goods using international corridors. Inland waterway transport along the north-south corridor is experiencing the same problems as through transport
along the Danube water system. In this regard, it is advisable to consider the issue in a complex, taking into account the types of ships used, the state of the transport infrastructure, the possibility of using combined transport by various modes of transport. At the same time, one should take into account the limited operation of water transport during the year.
The third aspect is the planning of transportation. IWT, due to its characteristics (speed of transportation, limited traffic routes, seasonality) is not intended to operate on the spot market of transport services (such as automobiles). It tends more towards long-term contract transportation, and in our country, due to climatic conditions, it also tends to seasonal. Therefore, important conditions for the effectiveness of the work of weapons and military equipment are planned and long-term contracts for transportation, preferably in a closed, circular cycle.
The research topic allows us to draw the following conclusions.
Although the climatic conditions of our country make it impossible for the existence of permanent logistics schemes with the participation of weapons and military equipment, in reality effective use GDP to solve certain problems during navigation.
The use of GDP will significantly ease the burden on the transport infrastructure in general and free up other modes of transport, such as cars.
mobile or rail, for the transportation of goods that need constant and rhythmic delivery. This can be achieved by:
The use of river vessels as shuttles connecting the country's domestic terminals with ports, for this it is necessary to create a new type of multifunctional, high-speed vessels that ensure the timely delivery of export and import cargo;
Delivery of large-tonnage and oversized cargo, the transportation of which by other modes of transport is impossible or difficult;
Delivery of goods to hard-to-reach places where there is no other transport infrastructure;
More active use of river vessels in the transport of seasonal goods that do not require urgent delivery, in the transport of bulk cargo in direct traffic to create stocks or fill warehouses and storage facilities. about
Literature
1. Kuznetsov A. L. Mechanisms of rational
ground distribution routes
division and choice of modes of transport //
Transport: science, technology, management.
2011. No. 6. S. 13-18.
2. Kraan M. The Inland waterways on the
European continent. Paris, 2008.
3. EU transport in figures / European
commission. 2010.
4. Development strategy of the seaport
Russian infrastructure until 2030.
If we do not consider the very legendary canals, of which only mentions remain, the history of the construction of artificial waterways must apparently begin with the construction in 1605 of the Nivernai Canal, connecting the basins of the Seine and Laura rivers. However, the reference page is not a dogma, and if anything is found, we will correct and add it.
The Elbe-Lübeck Canal (German: Elbe-Lübeck-Kanal) or the Elbe-Trave Canal is a canal in Germany, in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.
It connects the river Elbe near the city of Lauenburg and the river Trave near the city of Lübeck. Provides one of the routes of communication between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea. The canal is 67 kilometers long.
The canal has existed since the Middle Ages under the name of the Stecknitz canal. Originally built between 1390 and 1398, it is one of the oldest canals in Europe. The canal connected the Stecknitz River, a tributary of the Trave, and the Delvenau River, a tributary of the Elbe. The channel was part of the Old Salt Way. The parameters of the old canal are 0.85 meters deep, 7.5 meters wide and 94 kilometers long. The canal was served by 17 wooden locks, some of which have survived to this day.
In 1900, the ancient canal was replaced by the new Elbe-Lübeck canal. Partially, the canal passed along the path of the old one. The new canal was straightened, the length of the path was significantly reduced from 94 to 67 kilometers. via via
In 1626, the construction of the Rhine-Meuse canal began.
In 1666-1691. France built the Languedoc Canal, which through the Garonne Canal connected the Mediterranean Sea with the Bay of Biscay via
In Russia in 1702-1707. Elifanovskiy (Ivanovo, Ivanoozerskiy) canal was built, connecting the Volga and Don across the Upa River (near Tula).
In the 17th century, the foundations of the waterways between the Elbe and Oder rivers were laid - the so-called Brandenburg brand waterways: in 1605-1620 the Finowkanal was built - the oldest artificial water structure in Germany, which is still in operation. In 1773-1774. the rivers of Germany and Poland were connected by the Bromberg Canal (Bydgoszcz Canal) - from the Oder to the Vistula.
The first channel in the UK - Bridgewater - between Manchester and the river. Mersey - built in the 60s of the 18th century. The first channel in the USA - between the river. Merimak and Boston Harbor - opened only at the beginning of the 19th century. 1825 - the beginning of construction in the United States of the largest water systems, such as the Erie Canal - from the Great Lakes to New York with a total length of 813 km.
The end of the 18th century - the first half of the 19th century went down in history as the "era of canals". The rapid development of productive forces after the industrial revolution in the middle of the 18th century. determined a sharp increase in the volume of transported goods, with which horse-drawn transportation could not cope. Before the advent of the railway, canals and rivers were the main routes of internal communication, so the canal network developed very quickly.
By the middle of the 19th century. railway competition suspended the construction of artificial waterways, but by this time a huge number of canals had already been built in European countries.
For example, in the UK, canals are twice the length of a river. Canals connect the central industrial regions of England (see Birmingham Canal) with major seaports (London, Liverpool, Bristol). The seaports of the northwest and northeast of England (Liverpool and Hull), southwest and southeast (London, Bristol, Southampton) were also connected by inland waterways:
2012 screenshot of an interactive canal map of England
In France, canals connected the industrial hub of Paris with the main agricultural region - the river basin. Muara and from the river. Ronoy - the way to the Mediterranean Sea and to the Basin of the river. Garons. In the east, canals connected the Seine basin with the Rhine and the rivers of Belgium.
see list of channels of France on frenchwiki
In western Germany, artificial waterways were built mainly in the basin of the Rhine, connected by the middle of the 19th century. with all neighboring major rivers.
At the beginning of the 19th century the waterways of the Vistula basin were connected to the rivers of the Dnieper basin (Royal or Dnieper-Bug Canal) and the Neman basin (Augustow Canal).
1783 - the Oginsky waterway (Oginsky canal, Dnieper-Neman canal) was put into operation, connecting the Yaselda rivers (Pripyat basin, a tributary of the Dnieper) and Shchara (Neman basin) Wiki, blog (clickable):
In 1805, the water connection between the Dnieper and the Western Dvina was put into operation - the Berezinsky water system, which was subjected in 1810-1812. radical reconstruction:
In 1811, the Tikhvin water system was put into operation.
In 1817-1825. the Erie Canal was laid to the lake of the same name, which made it possible to bypass Niagara Falls from the south.
In 1825-1845. construction of the Welland (Welland) Canal, which made it possible to bypass Niagara Falls from the north side.
1826-1850 construction of the Catherine Canal Volga-Moscow
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland. The canal's principal cargo was coal from the Allegheny Mountains.
In 1839, the Augustow (Vistula-Neman) canal via was built:
1848 - The 154 km long Michigan-Illinois Canal was built, connecting the American Great Lakes with the Mississippi basin.
1836-1846 a very technically complex Rhine-Main-Danube connection was built, called the Ludwig Canal (named after the Bavarian king, by whose order construction was carried out), which implemented a direct waterway "from the Varangians to the Greeks", from the North to the Black Sea. The length of the canal is 172 km, it had 101 locks.
By the middle of the 19th century. a system of European inland waterways from the Dnieper to the Garonne was formed. On it, in principle, it was possible to go from Smolensk or Kyiv to Hamburg, Paris or Marseille. True, this system was a combination of waterways of different construction time and capacity, and therefore it could not be used as a whole.
The advantage of Russia's waterways is the possibility of using rolling stock of similar size. In the second half of the 19th century the construction of waterways ceased, except for the Ob-Yenisei Canal (length - 7.3 versts, 150 versts of sluice rivers, which, due to a combination of circumstances, remained unemployed from the time of construction. Canals were also built parallel to the existing ones - Novo-Mariinsky, Novo-Ladoga.
1859-1871 - construction of the Suez Canal
1878-1898 - construction of the Ob-Yenisei Canal
1882-1893 - construction of the Corinth Canal:
1887-1895 - construction of the Kiel Canal, connecting the North and Baltic Seas
In 1909, an interdepartmental commission was created to improve inland water communications Russian Empire, which proposed the creation of a Russian network of waterways connecting all the major rivers of the European and Asian parts of Russia. The most outstanding project that has not yet been implemented was the project of the Kama-Irtysh connection (through the Chusovaya and Iset rivers, the length from the mouth of the Chusovaya to Tobolsk is 1438 versts). It was supposed to build 117 locks. The creation in 1930-1965 of the Unified deep-water system of the European part of the USSR was, in essence, the implementation of the plans of the pre-revolutionary commission.
In 1928, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to build a waterway through the Ural Range. However, this decision was not implemented. In 1930, the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal began, due to military and political considerations. In 1937, the construction of the Moscow Canal was completed (its construction also solved the problem of water supply to the capital). After the incorporation of Western Belarus into the USSR, a new Dnieper-Bug Canal was built in a few months, running parallel to the old one.
In the United States in 1919, another reconstruction of the Barge Canal was completed. In 1930, the New Welland Canal was introduced, bypassing Niagara. By the end of the 1930s, a water connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi basin was put into operation: the Chicago-Illinois waterway. In the interwar period, two coastal channels were built - along the Atlantic coast and along the Gulf of Mexico.
In France and Great Britain, work was carried out to improve the condition of the canal network, unified the dimensions of the track, and the canals were transferred to electric and mechanical traction. For example, in England - the reconstruction of the Grand Union waterway (Birmingham-London).
In 1905, Germany adopted a program to improve waterways. In the same year, the locking of the Main began. 1921 - the year of the organization of the JSC "Rhine-Main-Danube", which took over the costs of the construction of this waterway. In 1938, the Middle German Canal was opened, providing a stable water connection for the basins of the Rhine, Elbe and Oder rivers. In 1939, the approach Gliwice Canal was built, connecting Upper Silesia and the Oder. In the 40s, due to hostilities, the construction of canals was stopped.
The waterways of Ukraine and Belarus are connected by canals with the system of waterways of Foreign Europe, communicating with the rivers of Russia only through the seas.
In 1957, the European Conference of Ministers of Transport takes place. The following directions for the reconstruction of the network of inland waterways have been adopted:
creation of meridional connections Rhine-Main-Danube and Rhone-Rhine, providing a connection between the system of inland waterways of Europe with the Black and Mediterranean Seas;
reconstruction of latitudinal connections (Middle German Canal, Bydgoszcz Canal).
formation of the direction Dnieper - Pripyat - Bug - Vistula.
To date, plans for the creation of meridional connections are practically fulfilled. By 1985, the locking of the Rhone was completed, providing the necessary depths. Transit navigation along the Danube-Main-Rhine canal was solemnly opened on September 25, 1992. The canal is a unique structure - it was built in a densely populated area, under the control of the "greens" in an area well provided with other means of communication. The canal crosses the watershed at 406 meters above sea level, higher than any other canal in the world. Part of its route runs in aqueducts, which was previously considered impossible for structures of this size. Canals were also built in the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern Germany.