Infuture

Future potential of Inland Waterways

This Finnish-Russian project looked for the best ways to develop and to promote sustainable and cost-effective inland waterways transport.

The project is finished.

Objectives

Inland waterway transport has a great potential and it is competing to road and rail transportation modes. EU transport policy points to restrict pollutant emissions from transport and to shift cargoes from overloaded roads to the sustainable modes of transport. The aim of the “Future potential of Inland Waterways” project is the inland waterways promotion, providing waterway transport a stronger position in the transport system and the increasing the commercial use of inland waterways as transport corridors. In order to promote inland waterways INFUTURE project takes a comprehensive approach to find the profitable and environmental-friendly waterway transportation solution.

Activities

The project identify the most efficient ways to use multimodal transportation options and handle cargo. Project also examines the legislation on freight traffic as well as Finnish and Russian customs policies. It is important to examine what impact the current regulation has on transport volumes and what could be done to make regulation support the increasing cargo flows. It would be important to understand more deeply the Finnish and Russian points of growth in the field of inside waterway transportation. The transshipping alternative enables to link inside waterways to the global transport system in a more effective manner considering existing ship assets.

Results

  • Studies on cargo volumes, inland ports, IWR regulation, multimodality
  • International benchmarking and best practices
  • Recommendations for the vessel concept
  • Online IWT service development
  • International cooperation in IWT education
  • Model of Transshipment Hub

Articles

16.12.2018 “Paine ilmastotekoihin kasvaa”

17.2.2019 ”Kasvava paine hillitä ympäristötuhoja siirtää kuljetuksia maanteiltä sisävesille”

Toomas Lybeck “Prosperous Future of Inland Waterways” 2019

Tatiana Pantina, Tamara Volkova, Toomas Lybeck WP1.1: Inland waterway transportation and its prospects in Russia and Finland 2019

Bachelor’s thesis Degree programme in Logistics 2020, Pinja Koskela & Oskari Pohjonen

Sari Koivu & Valeriya Sabitova. TRANSSHIPMENT HUB CONCEPT, MULTIMODAL TRANSPORTATION, INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARK Finnish-Russian Transshipment Hub -The optimal model for the future IWT. Barchelor´s thesis.

Transshipment Hub Concept: Report on the study. Anna Kiviniitty, 19.5.2021

Sisävesikuljetukset nousuun kansainvälisellä yhteistyöllä | READ Xamk. Anna Kiviniitty, 2.6.2021

Simulations of fairways in Lake Saimaa. Presentations and proposals. Antti Lanki, Tapani Salmenhaara, 7.6.2021

Transshipment Hub – idea sisävesilikenteen kehittämiseen. Read-lehti 3/2021. Anna Kiviniitty 5.10.2021

Xamk simulator in action

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INFUTURE Final Conference

30.11.-1.12.2021
Maritime Centre Vellamo, Kotka, Finland

The conference will focus on presenting the research results of the project through four different themes. The first theme, “Towards a Green Transition”, focuses on the EU’s Green Deal and Fit for 55 programs, as well as national emission reduction targets for inland waterway transportation. Another theme highlights the opportunities and potential of inland waterway transport today. The third theme aims to present best practices and smart solutions for the development of inland waterway infrastructure and port operations. The last, fourth session looks at visions for the future of inland waterways as a sustainable mode of freight transport.

​Attending the conference  is possible both at site in person or on-line.

The conference is free of charge.

Agenda

Registration to the Conference by 24.11.2021 here

Current

Growing transport needs are the sign of modern life. Railways have limited capacity and they almost reach their limits. Road transportation is not very environmentally friendly or energy efficient. Inland waterway transport, on the other hand, is connected to nature in a way that makes them cost-effective and environmentally friendly. With the help of current ship technology, vessels can be made low-emission.

The network of inland waterways in Finland includes the Saimaa canal leading from the Saimaa lake area to the sea and 31 other canals. The canals are located in the waters of Vuoksi, Kymijoki and Kokemäenjoki. Saimaa lake is the the fourth largest natural freshwater lake in Europe. The Saimaa basin has been an important transport route hundreds of years. There is a water transport connection to the Gulf of Finland along the Saimaa canal, except for a couple of months of winter, when the waterway is frozen. The past winter in 2019 was so mild, that canal was open two weeks earlier than usually. These are optimal conditions for using icebreakers less and making waterway more cost-effective than before. The increase of inland fairway use is justified by climate change and by its ability to reduce the overloading on the road and rail network, as well as road traffic emissions and accidents.

The share of direct transport through the Saimaa canal in the Lake Saimaa area in 2018 was 1.3 mln tons. In 2019 the volume of transport decreased to 1.2 million tons, despite of potential canal capacity is over 3 million tons. It is high time to use a large potential of the inland waterways, but there is still a noticeable disproportion in foreign trade transport: the share of inland water transport is about 0.5%. What is the reason of such a small attention to the best possible transport?

Research and some results.

The INFUTURE-project research was aiming to study the current situation of the commercial use and to find obstacles to the development of waterway transport. The aim was to study the existing goods flows in inland waters and also to find out the possibilities to increase the volumes of goods by interviewing the stakeholders. Target companies were chosen taking into account the production growth of large and well-known companies. The possibility of shifting freight transport from roads and rails were taken into account as well as the emergence of new possible freight types. The regional proximity to the existing fairways, like they have in the Saimaa region, was an important factor for the choices.

In order to develop inland waterway transportation INFUTURE-project had to understand the points of growth for IWT and reveal the growth barriers. To do so main international market actors were involved to the dialogue. Saimaa and Vuoksi area specialists, representatives of shipping companies and industrial top-managers were interviewed and their opinions brought new light to the needs of IWT. The interviews gave possibility to make some important conclusions.

All the respondents find it very important that the extension of the locks of the Saimaa canal would be finally achieved.  There are 8 locks, the length of which are 85 meters and the width is 13.2 meters. Apparently, the length of the locks is already starting to be a limiting factor for cargo traffic on the Saimaa canal. The investment for the 10 meter extension has been on the table for more than 10 years. So, there is an immediate urgency for the investment.  Vessels in Saimaa traffic are getting older and no ship owner want to order new vessels in this current “Status Quo” situation. New locks will give new measurements 92,5m x 12.6mm x 4,45m for the vessel size. The new dimensions will make transport even more cost-effective and attract more logistics operators to the area.

There is a strong interest from manufacturers like Andrits Ltd., Matsinen Group and other companies towards project cargo transportation from Finland to Russia by waterways. Regarding to container transportation the comments were not very optimistic. Containers are not the most common transport type in Finnish IWT. Joensuun Laivaus Oy have experience in the field of container services, but container transportation by water happens rarely. Saimaa ports are quite well equipped and there are possibilities to load containers and to ship them. Container traffic can bring a lot of benefits, especially on longer European routes.

With the help of port operators, ship agents and representatives of shipping companies there was formed a list of recommendations for the new ship concept. Among those recommendations were such things as ice class and side bow thruster. They also feel that companies should be ready to share capacity for bulk cargo and container transportation. The respondents also see the need of energy consumption and bio-fuel use in inland water transport.

In addition to this the interviewed top-managers suggested, cautiously, that the volume of production in 2020 remains at the same level as in 2019. The only exception was technology industry, which supposed a gradual growth. Andritz Ltd., Mantsinen Group and forest industry companies UPM and Stora Enso have made significant investments, which may lead to the increase of cargo flows.

Obviously, at the time the interviews were conducted, it was possible to anticipate an increase in transportation volumes. Nobody could predict the world pandemic situation. Coronavirus will undoubtedly change all our plans and will influent on the whole world economic. However, Inland waterway transport will maintain its position as an environmentally friendly, cost-effective and large-volume mode of transport.

Suomen sisävesiväylien vuotuiset tavarakuljetukset voisivat jo tänä päivänä olla moninkertaiset. Saimaan kanavan kautta kulkevien kansainvälisten lastien määrä on jäänyt alle kahteen miljoonaan tonniin, vaikka todellinen potentiaali mahdollistaisi yli kolmen miljoonan tonnin – ja optimistisimpien arvioiden mukaan jopa viiden miljoonan tonnin – tavaravirrat.

Euroopan komissio on White Paper 2011 –linjauksissaan määrittänyt, että merkittävä osa ympäristöä rasittavista rekkakuljetuksista on siirrettävä vesille ja rautateille vuoteen 2050 mennessä. Keskipitkien henkilö- ja tavarakuljetusten siirtäminen 50 prosentin osuudella rautateille ja vesireiteille pienentää liikenteen hiilidioksidipäästöjä. Se on Euroopan komission linjausten merkittävin motiivi. Tavoitetta tuetaan kestävää ympäristökehitystä tukevien polttoaineratkaisujen suosimisella.

Myös Suomelta odotetaan sitoutumista EU:n yhteisiin linjauksiin. Vaikka sisävesikuljetusten on todistettu olevan ympäristöystävällisiä ja kustannustehokkaita, maassamme unohdetaan tuhansien kilometrien pituisen sisävesireitistön olemassaolo. Pituudeltaan se vastaa Hollannin ja Saksan reitistöjä, vaikka käyttöasteeltaan Suomi on jäänyt pahasti muista jälkeen. Joka tapauksessa olemme osa Eurooppalaista kuljetusjärjestelmää ja Saimaan alue on osa Euroopan laajuista TEN-T -liikenneverkkoa.

Me olemme eurooppalaisia ja siitä meitä tullaan muistuttamaan, kun unioni tarkkailee yhteisten ympäristötavoitteiden toteutumista. Tässä pieni matemaattinen muistutus siitä, millaisesta mittakaavasta puhumme kuljetusmuotojen valinnassa: yhteen sisävesialukseen mahtuu 80 rautatievainun ja 128 puoliperävaunullisen kuorma-auton lastit. Meiltä pitäisi siis löytyä suuri motivaatio siirtää lasteja pois maanteiltä ja alkaa kehittää sisävesipalveluja entistä suuremmalle joukolle yrityksiä.

Kiinnostus sisävesikuljetusten hyödyntämiseen tulee kasvamaan, kun lisäämme alusten lastinottokykyä, pidennämme Saimaan kanavaa, rakennamme entistä kustannustehokkaampia ja monikäyttöisimpiä aluksia innovatiivisista materiaaleista, varustamme alukset pienipäästöisillä tai päästöttömillä polttoainejärjestelmillä. teemme talvinavigaatiosta uuden vahvuuden kaikkine alusteknisine ratkaisuineen ja väyläpalveluineen, digitalisoimme väylät ja tuomme uuteen aluskantaan käyttöä helpottavaa automaatiota sekä laajennamme satamapalveluita sopimaan muillekin kuin suurille yrityksille.

Tehtävää on paljon, mutta saavutettavat hyödyt tulevat pitämään kilpailukykyä yllä pitkälle tulevaisuuteen.

Project name:

INFUTURE – Future potential of Inland Waterways

Project duration: 1.11.2018–31.10.2021

Info

Lead partner: Kotka Maritime Research Centre
Partial partners: South-Eastern University of Applied Science (XAMK), Aalto University AALTO, SeaHow Ltd., Finnish Waterway Association FWA, Admiral Makarov State University for Maritime and Inland Shipping MAKAROV, North-West Russia Logistics and Information Development Centre ILOT
Focus area: Logistics and seafaring

Budget

Financier and main source of funding: The project is co-funded by the European Union.
Total budget: EUR 1 249 538
Xamk part of the total budget: EUR 276 000

More information

Toomas Lybeck
Project Manager
+358 40 487 5443
toomas.lybeck@xamk.fi

Anna Kiviniitty
Project Specialist
+358 40 593 3106
anna.kiviniitty@xamk.fi