First newsletter of Midnordic Green Transport Corridor

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NEWSLETTERDEVELOPING AND PROMOTING THE MIDNORDIC GREEN TRANSPORT CORRIDOR

March 2011

www.midnordictc.net

This is North East Cargo Link II -project The NECL II -project will continue the work that was first started in late 90´s and 2003-2006, by developing and promoting the east-west Midnordic transport corridor. The Midnordic Transport Corridor stretches through the middle parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland – and cannot be developed without transnational cooperation between these countries.

Industry in the Midnordic Region is dependent upon well functioning communications. Export industries require cost effective transport solutions to important global as well as continental markets including the rapid growth areas of the south and east Baltic.

A goods transport network must be coordinated transnationally and with regional links. In addition, the transport routes, particularly in northern continental Europe, are over burdened. The ever increasing amount of goods on the roads is worsening an already acute situation in terms of traffic congestion, pollution and long delivery times, which results in serious delays and high costs. Transferring goods from road and diesel trains to the “Midnordic Green Corridor” will substantially reduce the CO2 -footprints and contributes thus to Gothenburg Agreement for sustainability.

The Midnordic Corridor with connections to UK, continental Europe and Russia/Asia could provide a viable alternative for some of the goods presently moving southwards through Scandinavia, mainly for those being transported from the northern parts of the countries, and in that way relief the mentioned congested areas. In order to make the corridor effective and attractive certain weaknesses has to be eliminated. These weaknesses were indentified in the NECL I Interreg IIIB -project. Current project will provide intermodal transport concepts by supporting the development and implementation of supply chains and logistic concepts for various type of goods to and from Mid Nordic Region/BSR, including transition of transports to rail and sea.

Our goal is to prove with studies and analysis that the potential and benefits of the Midnordic Green Transport Corridor are obvious and that further development acquires investments on the corridor.

A joint output of all efforts in the project will be “A transnational Action Plan” in order to eliminate bottlenecks within the Midnordic Region and the corridor.

North East Cargo Link II - a Baltic Sea Region 2007-2013 -project

• Ca. 2,7 M€ budget• Duration: 2010–2013 • 22 partners from Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Leadpartner: County Administrative Board of Väster-norrland.

Partners representing eg. Transport Authorities, County Councils and County Administrative Boards in Sweden and Regional Councils in Finland, Fylken in Norway, Mid Sweden University, municipalities in all countries, the non-profit organization Midnordic Committee.

As associated partners national transport agencies in Norway, Sweden and Finland, chambers of com-merces, development agencies, as well as the Nordic Council of Ministers and NECLA.

More information: www.midnordictc.net

www.midnordictc.net

NEWSLETTERMarch 2011 2/6

DEVELOPING AND PROMOTING THE MIDNORDIC GREEN TRANSPORT CORRIDOR

Simple SWOT of our workOur strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT):

STRENGTHS: OBVIOUS NEED AND SUPPORT IN REGIONS

The time for developing and marketing the potential of the corridor seem to be right now. The bottlenecks that hinder development in the regions must be removed - together we search for evidence in order to get future funding for further development of the missing links.

WEAKNESSES: INFRA AND COMPETITION

There are clear bottlenecks in the infrastructure of the corridor that hinder the development of regions and business life.

The competition is though severe and there are other transport routes that compete over financing and same clients and users in Europe.

OPPORTUNITIES: PROOF AND ALTERNATIVE

The aim is to show and proof the potential of the corridor by carrying out several studies and pre-investment cases.

By these studies the corridor hopefully stands out as a real cost-effective alternative for other over burdened routes.

THREATS: FUNDING AND POLITICS

Several of the recognized bottlenecks have waited for national funding sometimes even for decades and haven´t got on priority lists.

Politics can though effect that the corridor still doesn´t rise up on the lists, instead other routes and investments overtake the funding.

Our goals and key messages in shortNorth East Cargo Link II –project aims to develop and promote the east-west Midnordic Transport Corridor: • by improving roads, railways and intermodal solutions in the corridor and• by developing an ICT system for optimization of goods transport in the corridor. Removing goods from roads to railway and sea will contribute sustainability and an environmentally friendly Midnordic Green Transport Corridor. The goal is to show the possibilities, potential and benefits of the Midnordic transport corridor to business actors, decision makers and other related actors. We Need Good Green Connections Now!

Impact of future sulfur regulation?Another questionmark is how the planned sulfur regulation will impact the Midnordic Transport Corridor. It would be important to agree on and implement possible future policies in a way that can meet lower environmental impacts of eg. short sea shipping, while the regulation do not disadvantage shipping in relation to other transport modes. NECL II will follow the process.

Project partners emphasized cooperat ion with transport authorities, decision makers and other projects.

www.midnordictc.net



Improving infrastructure in the Midnordic CorridorImprovements of railways, roads and harbours and the intermodality in the Midnordic Corridor is the main focus for Workpackage 3 in NECL II.

In order to establish the Midnordic Corridor as an alternative for goods transport, bottlenecks have to be removed through reconstructions and investments in the transport infrastructure. In addition, the intermodality has to be improved, that is to say the cooperation between the different transport modes through development of existing combiterminals or establishing new ones at suitable places in the corridor. The existing means of transport in the corridor are characterized by an unbalanced rail infrastructure, and limitations in interoperability between the separate countries national rail system. The most crucial missing links is the lack of close connections between sea and rail and intermodal nodes.

In the project we will focus on following activities:

• A regional economic study for the Meråker Line and E14 in Norway - illustrating the effects on society and

regional development of investments removing flagrant bottlenecks in the transport infrastructure. The Meråker Line as well as E14 in Norway are necessary links in the Midnordic Corridor. There is a need of further development and investments both for railway and road in this part of the region. In order to avoid a bottleneck effect in the east-west corridor these regional economical studies will concretize and prioritize investment plans for both objects. Road and railway maintenance will be included in the studies and also take into consideration both goods and passenger transports.

• Improvements of transport infrastructure for preparation of investments on E14 in Sweden including Östersund.

• Improving connections between railways and ports of Sundsvall, Timrå and Härnösand.

• Studies, investigations and preliminary engineering for main road 18 between Multia and Ähtäri and accessing regional road 621 (in Central Finland).

• Preparatory study for special transports in Ostrobothnia.

• New railway yards and goods rail terminals between Port of Kaskinen and City of Seinäjoki.

• Establishing Goods Delivery Center in Port of Kaskinen and Combiterminals in Seinäjoki, Östersund and Ånge.

The goal is to affect national plansCurrent laws in the countries covered by the project lay down the procedures for handling large infrastructure investments in both public and private sector. National, regional and local policy will govern the conditions for such investments. The level of participation from National, County and Local Councils decides the allocation of resources. The involvement of transport authorities in the project makes it realistic that proposed measures of investments will be realized. The proposed investments in NECL II are planned to be entered in each of the national transport infrastructure planning programmes. Investments in railways, roads and combiterminals are national, but will in fact be used by transporters and cargo owners from neighbouring and other countries who also take benefit of the Mid Nordic Corridor. The investments in transport infrastructure are at first hand focused on improving the intermodality, ie combiterminals and connections between rail, road and harbours.

Photo: Norden.org

www.midnordictc.net



Developing transports and logistics in the Midnordic CorridorThe main focus of Workpackage 4 in our project is to promote business and trade by the development and implementation of effective transport solutions in the Midnordic Corridor.

We will produce cargo flow statistics and forecasts, infrastructure facts, vital financial profitability figures and other supporting data for the decision making of investors into a new cargo liner service. We will implement business actions and activities to develop complete logistic concepts for transportation of various types of goods to and from Russia and Asia and to other global market in the West. The strategic focus is divided into the following two (2) parts or sub projects;

1) to support sustainable cost effective transport solutions for the Midnordic Corridor, by both the establishment of new transport concepts and regular cargo ships between the Sundsvall Ports region in Sweden and Kaskinen in Finland, and between Trondheim in Norway and UK and Ireland.

2) to support the development and implementation of supply chains and logistic concepts for transporting goods.

In the project we will focus on following activities: • Analysis of potential revenues, cargo flows and goods volumes. • Business Plans of shipping company/cargo liner between ports of Sundsvall Region and port of Kaskinen /Finland. • Description and analysis of different costs related to target ports and their infrastructure.

• Analysis of issues and practices related to intermodality problems between sea and land corridors as well as cross-border problems.

• Feasibility study on renewable bio-fuels in cargo ships.

Developing ICT portal The ICT portal development in workpackage 5 of NECL II will focus on decreasing the big volume of empty or partially loaded transports of today.

The aim is to transform an existing ICT system prototype to a fully operating transport matching system that works in daily operations at freight managers and logistical centers, for instance ports. The interest of this portal has grown and been demonstrated in other EU projects and the importance of further development has been pointed out by several cargo owners and transport operators. The system will be connected to the logistical centers data handling systems.

We will implement pilot tests using real time data and tailor extend and optimize further the existing modules. The development work will be done in close cooperation between researchers in computer sciences, external consultants and potential users e.g. ports, transport operators and cargo owners and all other involved in the project.

We will also pay attention to risk-factors, in other words, the system will make it possible to handle different types of risks and uncertainties in the optimization module and to be able to perform correct weighting of alternatives.

The most usual classic multiple criterias to be considered are time and cost and increasingly important: the amount of emissions. Delayed transports is one example of uncertainties.

The ICT portal developed will be an important tool to optimize goods transports in the corridor with free access for all interested in BSR (companies, authorities and private persons).

The development will be lead by Mid Sweden University (MIUN) in cooperation with logistic centers In Norway, Sweden and Finland, their transport operators and suppliers. Many of them are connected to our associated partner North East Cargo Link Alliance, NECLA, eg. the ports and the chambers of commerce in the area.

www.midnordictc.net



KICK-OFFS: The project kick-off was organized in Sundsvall on 9–10th of November 2010. Most of the project partners and other involved were present and discussed coming activities.

Norwegian partners arranged their own kick-off on 17th of January 2011 in order to strengthen the effect and work in Norway.

All partners agreed upon the important task ahead and promised to do their best in implementing the project activities. Cooperation with transport authorities,, politicians and other projects was especially emphasized during kick-offs.

Also a Steering Team has been nominated for the project, and has as task to follow and lead the project implement and coordination.

Steering Team members: • Källstrand Bo (Chairman, Leadpartner)• Arne Braut (Sör-Tröndelag)• Christer Fröjd (Mid Sweden University)• Ingemar Frej (Swedish Transport

Administration Mid Region)• Marlene Svens (City of Kaskinen)• Peter Boström (Midnordic Committe)• Rolf Nyholm (Midnordic Committe)• Per-Åke Hultstedt (Project Manager, LP) In addition WP-leaders, Project Managers and Financial Manager are invited to the meetings as associated members. Steering Team had the first meeting in March 2011.

PROJECT GRAPHIC DESIGNWith the new graphic design and material the aim is to emphasize our actual goal and key content, ie. the Midnordic Transport Corridor, instead of the actual project name North East Cargo Link II. This way it will be also easier to promote the corridor even after the project duration. The new fresh graphics indicate the environmental aspect and the extensive dimensions of the corridor.

Kick-off in Norway in January 2011: Arne Braut, the chairman of Sör-Tröndelag County Council interviewed by local media.

Steering Team, Project Managers and WP-leaders.

Happened so far… getting organized

www.midnordictc.net



UPCOMING EVENTS Green Highway -conference TransRussia 2011 Transport 2011 -fair30/3/2011 Sundsvall 26-29/4/2011 Moscow 19-21/5/2011 Jyväskyläeventus.trippus.se/greenhighway2011 www.transrussia.ru www.jklpaviljonki.fi/kuljetus2011

People behind the project – don´t hesitate to contact us!

Per-Åke Hultstedt Project Manager, WP3-leader, County Administrative Board of VästernorrlandCoordinates also work within Infrastructure. Lives and works in Härnösand, Sweden. Mobile: +46 70 190 41 95 E-mail: [email protected]

Jon HillgrenWP4 -leader, Midnordic Committe, County Council of VästernorrlandCoordinates the work of Transports and Logistics. Lives and works in Härnösand, Sweden.Mobile +46 73 274 44 93E-mail: [email protected]

Johanna BergmanFinancial Manager, County Administrative Board of VästernorrlandLives and works in Härnösand, Sweden. Mobile: +46 70 190 50 70E-mail: [email protected]

Leif OlssonWP5-leader, Mid Sweden UniversityLeads the work of ICT-portal. Lives and works in Sundsvall, Sweden. Tel. +46 70 2600 327E-mail: [email protected]

Virpi HeikkinenCommunication Manager, Regional Council of Central FinlandLives and works in Jyväskylä, Central Finland. Tel. +358 40 595 0178E-mail: [email protected]

Dear reader, this was the first newsletter of the North East Cargo Link (NECL) II -pro ject. Thank you for reading and hopefully even distributing it further!NECL II is a project part-financed by Baltic Sea Region Program me 2007–2013. We invite you to follow our project activities by issuing a newsletter twice a year for the project duration. In this first issue you will find general information on the objectives, partnership and future activities in our project. We hope that you find the NECL II -project interesting and useful. In next issues we will dig in deeper in the activities and present different topics, objectives and results. Please, don´t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or possible cooperation and development ideas.

Project Manager Per-Åke Hultstedt, Lead partner

Documents

First newsletter of Midnordic Green Transport Corridor