Suchergebnisse

Terrorist attacks in recent years have demonstrated that the transport sector is the most common target for terrorists due to severe impacts in terms of mass casualties and disruption of the free and safe movement mainly of people, and to a lesser extent, of goods. Such attacks have also further social, economical and political impacts. On-going un- successful attempts are testament to the fact that terrorism is a prominent danger to this sector. Transport networks vulnerable to terrorist attacks are being identified as ""critical infrastructure"" (based on a number of related criteria), and their protection represents a serious challenge nowadays. Limited research in this field has mainly dealt with assessment of vulnerabilities and risks and the development of effective contingency plans that seek to reduce the levels of a given crisis in time and space, mitigate the impact of attacks and restore operations with confidence. Security deficiencies do exist, as well as lack of consistency in terms of provisions and policies. However, since complete protection is unrealistic and economically unfeasible, prioritisation is required. The freight sector, albeit less attractive to the terrorist than the passenger transport sector, demands equal attention, given the fact that the economic values of society depend largely on the smooth operation of the supply chain itself. This paper sets out to provide an overview of the current work and related gaps in conducting threat, vulnerability, and criticality assessments against the potential terrorist attack to the multimodal passenger and freight transport systems, since in most cases a 'passenger trip' or a 'movement of goods' involves more than one mode. In addition, it looks at the transport supply chain and its resilience to disruptions from such attacks. Finally, measures to prevent, detect, and reduce threats are discussed. © Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2010.

Until recently, Europe was dominated by state-owned, vertically integrated railroads. Lately, European Union (EU) policies and relevant legislation have introduced the legal separation between railroad operations and infrastructure management. Thus, the railroad infrastructure management companies have started applying charges (termed access pricing) to railroad companies for using infrastructure. Although European policies and legislation set the basic access pricing principles, they did not provide specific rules or methods for deriving infrastructure charging systems. An access pricing system for suburban (commuter) rail services was developed. An overview of practices in EU member states and the United States is presented. The basic principles and economic characteristics of infrastructure charging are outlined. The proposed structure of the infrastructure charging system is discussed, with a distinction between the basic charge - which includes costs for train planning and line operations, infrastructure damage and wear and tear costs, and quality of services - and additional components. Each component is mathematically expressed. The proposed charging system does not include costs related to train operations. To test the robustness of the proposed system, it is applied to the suburban rail services provided by the Greek company AMEL, with trains running on the Greek railroads' infrastructure. The proposed infrastructure charging system can be applied to any railroad by changing the variable values.

Policies of general nature for improving the competitive position of intermodal transport have not always been successful. On the contrary, specific policies, such as targeting the supply chain or the offered services and transport are probably more effective in identifying and subsequently shifting transport from road to intermodal. The aim of the paper is the development of a methodology with the necessary tools to assess the potential of a specific policy measure to produce a modal shift in favour of intermodal transport. In addition, for the cases of positive outcomes, the necessary elements for the policy action plan are presented. The methodology comprises of three parts: a toolbox called the macro-scan, which assesses the potential for modal shift, a sensitivity analysis and the policy action plan. Thus, an insight on the impact of a modal shift on supply chains and on the potential for modal shift is acquired. The methodology, developed within the SPIN Research Project of the European Commission, will be useful to policy makers at governmental level as well as to the private sector, especially in the European Union countries. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The recent White Paper emphasises once more that the Trans-European transport network (TEN) is a key element in European Union (EU) policy, yet that its realisation is jeopardised by the lack of an integrated approach during evaluation and funding of cross-border infrastructure. Despite the intervention of the EU in conceptualising the TEN, subsidiarity and continued use of conventional evaluation procedures